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THE DOINGS OF NANCY 



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By EVELYN RAYMOND 

Author of^'‘ Boys and Girls of Brantham^'' 

“ Mixed Pickles f “ My Lady Barefootl^ etc. 

Illustrated by A. G. LEARNED 


DANA ESTES & COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS ^ BOSTON 




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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

JUN 28 1904 



Copyright Entry 


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LASS CC xXo. N& O 

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Copyright^ igo4 

By Dana Estes & Company 


All rights reserved 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Colonial Press 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. SImonda & Co. 
Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. Brother and Sister 

. 

• 


PAGE 

11 

II. 

Seeking a Situation 

. , 

• 


25 

III. 

Jerusalem Artichokes 

, 

• 


43 

IV. 

Father’s Bad News . 

, , 

• 


60 

V. 

A Memorable Morning 

. . 

• 


77 

VI. 

How It Was Decided 

. , 



97 

VII. 

In the Haunted Cabin 

. 



115 

VIII. 

The Happenings of a Morning 



133 

IX. 

A Woodland Visit . 

. 



153 

X. 

The Apparition 

. 



171 

XI. 

In the Tangles of Mystery . 



189 

XII. 

The Ghost Is Laid . 

. 



205 

XIII. 

The Final Delightful 

Doings 



222 


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

<“I CAME TO ANSWER YOUR ADVERTISEMENT, IF 

YOU PLEASE ’ ” (See page 31) . . Frontispiece 

“‘Do YOU CALL THAT THERE TOP - SCRATCHING 

DIGGING?’” 49 

“ And most of the precious ‘ roses ’ she cut . 

INTO BITS ” 86 

“ ‘ He’s all right, Rover, Rover, Rover ! 

Down, sir, down ! ’” . . . . • 116 ^ 

“ ‘ Say, Sissy, what was it you saw last 

NIGHT?”’ ... .... 141'^ 

“‘Sir, are you — the ghost?”’ . . . 183^ 

“At the very gate colliding with Jimmy” . 218 ✓ 

“ ‘ And do you forgive me now, you sweet ^ 
Miss ’Cretia?”’ 227 




THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


CHAPTER I. 

BROTHER AND SISTER 

Singing as lustily as the birds in the shrub- 
bery, Nancy came skipping out of the kitchen, 
with the tray, to the porch where Frank lay 
on his cot awaiting breakfast. The glory of 
the spring morning was in her heart, making 
it merrier than ever, but just then the sight 
of her happiness was an aggravation to the 
crippled brother, who exclaimed : 

I do wish you’d keep still ! ” 

Couldn’t! Nothing keeps still on a day 
like this. I can almost see the things grow.” 

« Humph!” 

• Come, Boy ! You’re hungry. See how 
nicely I’ve fixed your oatmeal,” and she 
11 




12 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


placed the saucer on the little table, con- 
venient to his hand. 

He sniffed suspiciously, took one morsel, 
and pushed the dish aside. 

Oh ! laddie, take care ! That’s the very 
last piece of step-aunt-mother’s china left. 
If you broke it — ” 

Well, I can’t eat that stuff. It’s 
scorched.” 

‘‘ Is it ! Oh, dear ! 

<< There was a small maiden of N orwich 
Who made the best sort of porridge, 

Till one day it burned, 

And then it was spurned 
By a fussy young man who was — horrid ! ^ 

Trash ! That’s no rhyme.” 

Maybe it’s the truth, though ! How’s 
this ? Any better ? 

<< There was a dear sister named Nancy, 

Who for cooking had quite a fancy. 

But when breakfast she burned 
She found it returned 
By an ungrateful brother called Frank-sy ! 


BROTHER AND SISTER 


13 


Don’t try any more. Isn’t there any- 
thing else I can have ? ” 

Truly, Frank, I don’t know. The four 
little Bateses ate the very last slice of bread 
there was, and every scrap of potato. Even 
father’ll have to put up with a baker’s loaf 
for his dinner, and will stop for it on his way 
to work. But wait! I’ll tell you! Old 
Mrs. Wakeman’s white hen strayed into our 
woodshed yesterday, and maybe she laid an 
egg there. If she did — her mistress says 
‘ findings are keepings.’ I’ll see.” 

Away she ran, singing, of course, her 
disappointment at spoiling her invalid’s 
breakfast already forgotten in the hope of 
providing a better one, and Frank watched 
her, amused yet envious, thinking : 

That certainly is the best-natured, home- 
liest girl in Norwich ! But I wish I had her 
legs. The idea of my lying here helpless 
and she free to run where she likes, yet no 
account to anybody. While I — Some- 
body else’ll get that clerkship — and all for a 


14 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


stupid ball game. It seems as if I couldn’t 
bear it ! ” 

Something very like tears came into the 
boy’s fine eyes, and at sound of children’s 
voices squabbling in the passage the scowl 
deepened on his brow. He resolutely looked 
away from them as the four small boys, his 
stepbrothers, came out on the porch to bid 
him good‘by before going to school; and 
when each had hurled at him the prescribed 
formula : Grood-by, brother Frank ; hope 

you’ll soon get well again,” and vanished 
through the gateway, he was greatly relieved. 
Sometimes they jostled his poor leg in its 
plaster cast, and sometimes they knocked his 
book or glass of water beyond his reach and 
left him longing for both till somebody 
chanced to come and restore them. This 
morning they had done nothing worse than 
leave their youngest brother, baby Solomon, 
sprawling on the porch floor, having shaken 
off his hold upon them as they dashed away. 

But nothing dismayed Solomon ; not even 


BROTHER AND SISTER 


15 


the fact that he was flat upon his back, and 
that the more violently he struggled to make 
his fat legs of use in turning his body over, 
the straighter they pointed toward the porch 
roof. 

However, the infant’s wrigglings finally 
carried him against the railing and, by its 
aid, he managed to roll upon his face, and 
thence to rise upon his pudgy feet. Not a 
whimper had escaped the little fellow, and 
though he now stood uncertainly, trembling 
and panting, he merely regarded his big 
brother with that intense gravity which had 
earned for him the nickname of Solem- 
nity.” 

^^Well, small sir, you did it! You’re a 
plucky little chap, aren’t you ? ” cried Frank, 
forgetting his own troubles for the moment. 

There was no answer, save a gurgle of 
delight, as Solomon discovered the saucer of 
oatmeal and toddled toward it. But his fat 
hands had no sooner closed upon it than he 
lost his balance and fell backward, the cher- 


16 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


ished dish breaking upon the boards and his 
own courage forsaking him. His shrieks 
brought Mrs. Bates from her housework and 
Nancy from her egg-hunting, and caused 
Frank to cover his ears against the din. 

But midway to the house, the sister was 
stopped by Mrs. Wakeman, leaning over the 
fence and extending something carefully 
covered with a napkin, as she called : 

^^Here, girlie, is a bit of steak left from 
our own breakfast, and maybe the poor boy, 
yon, can relish it. I said to Mr. Wakeman, I 
said, ^ Hiram, that’s too nice a piece of meat 
to go into a cold ice-box.’ ^ Then put it into 
somebody’s stummick,’ he said. So here ’tis ; 
and a hot roll and roast potato to keep it 
company. No, no. No thanks. It’s a pretty 
how-de-do if a neighbor can’t lend a hand to 
another, now and then. By the way, how 
many eggs did old Whitey lay in your wood- 
shed?” 

Not one ! Though, if she had, I should 
certainly have begged it of you for Frank. 


BROTHER AND SISTER 


17 


You see, I burned the porridge, and — there 
wasn’t anything else. It’s the queerest thing 
how hungry this Bates family is, all the time. 
I try to eat as little as I can, myself, but 
the boys — well, it would make you stare 
to see how fast a plate of bread gets emp- 
tied.” 

Never mind, Nancy. Be thankful they’re 
so hearty, and hurry to Frank with that steak. 
Here’s the morning paper, too, if he’d like 
it. As for me, I’m too busy to bother with 
newspapers, and Mr. Wakeman has finished it. 
My ! how that little Solomon does screech ! ” 

Yes, but it isn’t often he cries, poor 
darling. Thank you, thank you, so much ; 
and I’ll bring the dishes back in a few 
minutes.” 

Radiant with pleasure at the feast he was 
to enjoy, Nancy hurried to her brother’s side 
and carefully placed the dainty breakfast 
before him. The mother had carried Solomon 
away, and there seemed nothing left to mar 
the peace of the morning; but, to Nancy’s 


18 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


surprise, the cripple pushed the dishes angrily 
aside, remarking : 

wish that old woman would keep her 
^ cold victuals ’ at home. I’m not a beggar, if 
I did break my leg. Take the stuff back 
with my compliments, please. I — I hate 
her ! I hate — everything ! ” 

Down upon the floor dropped Nancy, 
laughing, yet clasping her hands with a 
tragic gesture, as she burst forth with an- 
other Limerick : ” 

There is a young crosspatch named Bates, 

Who his kindly old neighbor just hates, 

For ’twas her mistake 
To send him hot steak, 

Which as horrid ‘ cold victuals ’ he rates.’ ^ 

In spite of himself, Frank laughed, and as 
his lips parted to do so, plump went a morsel 
of buttered potato into the open cavity be- 
tween them. He had to swallow it, but 
cried : Quit — ” 

^That ! ’ ” finished the girl, for him, as a 
piece of meat followed the potato. 


BROTHER AND SISTER 


19 


Nan — ’’ 

This time it was a bit of roll, and, finding 
himself vanquished, as well as the food re- 
freshing, Frank made a virtue of necessity 
and submitted to be fed with the entire 
contents of the big plate. After which his 
crossness had entirely disappeared, though 
there was left in its stead a look of such 
unhappiness that Nancy’s heart sank. With 
a sympathetic impulse she threw her arms 
about him and begged : 

Don’t look so wretched, laddie ! I can’t 
have it ! I know it’s hard, dreadfully hard, 
and I wish I could take your place on the cot 
here and give you my own uncracked legs ! ” 
That’s just it. Nan. They’re cracked 
bones, not honest broken ones, and they’re 
bound not to heal. The doctors talked about 
^two months,’ there at the hospital where I 
was taken from the field, but yesterday, when 
I went across in the ambulance to have the 
cast changed, they said there was only one 
chance to save me from being always lame.” 


20 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Franksy ! What — do you mean ? 

^^Just exactly what I say. It was their 
talk made father so blue last night, and 
mother so quiet this morning. I know she’s 
trying to think out a way to help me, but she 
can’t. How can she, when father’s in debt 
for his own doctor’s stuff, and able to work but 
half the time ? What a fool, what a fool I 
was to go into a football game — a beggar 
like me ! ” 

Now see here, Frank Bates. Don’t you 
dare to call my brother names. If you do I’ll 
dose you with mpre ^ Limericks ’ — or worse. 
But you tell me in plain words, ^suitable 
to my simple comprehension ,’ what those 
learned old bone-setters said and meant.” 

I must keep on these casts for three 
months ; then, if I am not to be left lame, a 
limper, a hoppety-pat for life, I must have 
a very expensive brace made to fit me, and 
must wear that for a long time afterward. 
Now, do you wonder I’m cross and — horrid ? ” 
^^No, I don’t. I’m glad you are. When 


BROTHER AND SISTER 


21 


sick folks are — umm ! — it’s a good sign. 
They’re on the mend, so Mrs. Wakeman 
says. But, tell me. How much would this 
brace really cost ? ” 

“ Fifty dollars, at least. Possibly seventy- 
five.” 

“ Frank Bates ! Oh, oh ! For a little bit 
of a thing no bigger than your leg ? ” 

So they say. Surgical things cost fear- 
fully. It’s no use. I must face what can’t 
be helped. Yet it makes me mad to think 
it’s only fifty dollars, that lots of rich people 
waste in foolishness, which would save me 
from lifelong disgrace ! ” 

There’s no disgrace in being lame. Boy, 
any more than — ” 

Don’t preach ! That’s easy enough, 
though, so long as it’s I not you who has to 
suffer. That makes the difference. I wish 
you’d go away. I didn’t sleep much last 
night, and maybe I can now.” 

Nancy showed no resentment at her 
brother’s unjust words, and scarcely heard 


22 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


them. Already she had determined that this 
seemingly impossible fifty dollars must be 
secured, though with no idea how. She 
arose and gathered up the dishes and 
newspaper, then swiftly retreated to a 
dusky corner of the rickety woodshed, 
and the spot she always sought upon the 
rare occasions when she wished to be 
alone. 

Putting her neighbor’s china in a safe 
place, she sat down upon the chips, leaned her 
head against the cobwebby wall, and spread 
the paper in her lap. 

Now, I’ve got to think my hardest ! 
Frank Bates shall not — shall not be a 
cripple — never! If we could only swap 
legs ! Of course, we can’t do that, though it 
would seem the easiest way out. Father 
hasn’t the money, and poor step-aunt-mother 
never has a cent. Once I had a nickel. 
Alas 1 it’s gone. Fifty dollars is five thou- 
sand cents, and a nickel is five. Five into 
five thousand — give it up ! ” 


BROTHER AND SISTER 


23 


With a comical gesture she dropped her 
hands upon the paper in her lap, then bend- 
ing forward, raised them and laid her face 
between them. For a time she gazed upon 
the printed columns without gaining any 
meaning from them, so absorbed was she ; 
then one short paragraph seemed suddenly 
to leap into view and impress itself upon her 
mind. The next instant she was upon her 
feet, ecstatically waving the newspaper and 
emitting a series of delighted shrieks that 
unflattering Frank would have termed 
squeals.” 

I’ve found it ! I’ve found it ! I’ll do 
it — yes, I will ! Oh, let me be quick — quick 
— quick ! ” 

A few moments later the excited girl 
bounced into Mrs. Wakeman’s kitchen, de- 
posited that lady’s dishes on the table, 
hugged her till she choked, and bounced out 
again, leaving the astonished matron won- 
dering : 

What’s that madcap after now ! Seems 


24 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


if her folks had hard times enough, seems if, 
but nothing ever worries her. Time and 
again I’ve said to Hiram, I said : ^ Trouble 
slips off Nancy Bates as if she’d been 
greased ; ’ and he said, ^ Better to slip it than 
to lug it,’ he said. Likely he was right. 
Quite likely.” 


CHAPTER II. 


■ 


SEEKING A SITUATION 

Miss Lucretia Halpine was a gentle- 
woman with very strict ideas of propriety to 
which she felt she had been unfaithful, as she 
read and re-read her own advertisement in that 
morning’s Local, still damp from the press. 
When Jane came in to clear away the break- 
fast things her mistress looked up and 
exclaimed, half reproachfully : 

Jane, they’ve put it in ! ” 

Well, ma’am, that’s what you expected 
when you sent it, wasn’t it ? Else why ? ” 
returned the servant, in her common-sensible 
way. 

The flush deepened on the lady’s fair, 
elderly cheek as she assented : 

^^Yes, of course. But it’s the first, the 

very first time in all my life that I ever 
26 


26 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


rushed into print in this bold manner. It’s 
quite disgraceful to need help, anyway, but 
to advertise — My ! I didn’t realize how it 
would seem; so like airing one’s domestic 
affairs in public. And I do not see what 
possessed Solomon to get rheumatic now, in 
the spring of the year, with gardening com- 
ing on so fast and all. If he’d chosen the 
winter — ” 

Laws, Miss ’Cretia. We’re all old folks 
together, you and him and me. He’s the 
oldest, course, and so the likeliest to fail first. 
But don’t you fret, honey. He’s a good 
deal worrieder over the work than you be, 
and will get into that garden soon’s he can 
hold a spade. I wish you’d read it out, 
ma’am, if you please. Then I can tell it to 
him. He thought it was dreadful clever of 
you to write things good enough to print, 
though I told him there wasn’t much in the 
head-work line you couldn’t do if you tried.” 

So Miss Lucretia read as follows : 

Wanted : A boy to work in a fiower 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


27 


garden. Must be neat and trustworthy. 
References required. Apply to Miss Halpine, 
Cedarcroft.'' 

Jane complimented the author of this 
effusion : 

There ! Don't that sound slick ? I feel 
proud of it, indeed, and the first time, too. 
ITl hurry to tell husband before I forget a 
single word," and she at once departed ; to 
return promptly and in great excitement, 
crying out : 

Miss 'Cretia, look out the window — 
town way — quick ! The road’s as full of 
boys as ’tis of angleworms after a shower ! 
And you a-wonderin’ if you’d get one 
answer ! ’’ 

Miss Halpine crossed the room, glanced, 
and gasped : 

^^Oh! Jane!’’ 

Then she sank into a chair, and presently 
said, quite calmly : 

I’m as foolish as you. Of course, all 
those lads are not coming here. Maybe 


28 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


there’s a school holiday and they’re off for a 
picnic or fishing trip. It’s absurd to imag- 
ine that one small advertisement — ” 

The old servant interrupted : 

It’s as true as preaching. Every mother’s 
son of them is making for our gate ! Solo- 
mon, he’s alw'ays talking about the ^ power of 
the press,’ ’specially along ’lection time, but 
yonder beats any ’lection I ever saw. What 
shall I do with ’em ? Whatever shall I do 
with ’em ? ” 

Lock the gate. They mustn’t come in ; 
at least, not so many. The paths are fresh 
from the rain and they’ll track them dread- 
fully. Oh, why did I do that senseless 
thing ! ” 

What’s a gate to a boy, ma’am ? Only 
something to climb over. Better let ’em 
track the gravel than the grass. It’s your 
own doings, and we’ve got to see the thing 
out, somehow ; if we live to do it ! ” 

Oh, oh ! I didn’t know there were so 
many lads in the whole of Norwich!” cried 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


29 


the mistress, taking another look out of the 
window, and now able to hear the shouts 
and laughter of the approaching applicants, 
whose number seemed countless. Call Solo- 
mon. He must get up long enough to 
protect us. He must.” 

Jane closed her lips grimly; then opened 
them to say : 

Not an up will he get, ma’am. No, 
indeedy. Proud as he is of your writin’ 
smartness, he was mad about its being put in 
the paper. He said if you’d give him time 
he’d find somebody worth having around, but 
them yonder ! Humph ! ” 

Miss Halpine rose. It was not the first 
time that this old couple, who had served 
her from their youth, had presumed upon her 
patience. Devoted as they were to her in- 
terests, their occasional fits of obstinacy 
could only be met by indifference ; and now, 
as if she were not at all disturbed by what 
was happening, she replied : 

Very well. Just as he pleases. I will 


30 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


go out on the south porch and receive the 
lads.” 

But, Miss’ Cretia, you might catch cold, 
or they might be sassy.” 

The air is mild, I will take my hat, and 
— I can find all the ^ sass ’ I wish within 
doors ; ” and, by this time seeing rather the 
ludicrous than the annoying side of the 
affair, the mistress of Cedarcroft stepped out 
upon the piazza with a smile upon her face. 

The foremost of her small fellow citizens 
had already reached the spotless steps and 
was about to put his muddy foot upon them, 
when a strange figure flew around the house 
corner and pushed him back, while a gay 
voice reproved him thus : 

Aren’t you ashamed, Jimmy Lincoln ? 
How dare you mess things that way ? Wipe 
your shoes; and, anyway, I’m first. I'm 
first. Oh, please, please. Miss Halpine, 
take me ! Please take me I" 

At this a wild shout went up from every 
one of the throng, and the deafening uproar 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


31 


caused Miss Lucretia to look hastily about 
for some retreat. Instantly, a stoop chair 
was pushed toward her and she was assisted 
to it by the same person — was it girl or 
boy ? — who had taken Jimmy to task. 

The lady cleared her eyes and looked fix- 
edly at this plain-faced small creature, whose 
gingham frock was topped by a boy's jacket 
and hat, whose hair was so red it fairly 
glowed, whose freckled nose stood out in an 
inquisitive way from a pair of very rosy 
cheeks, and whose eyes and smile were the 
brightest she had ever seen. 

Well, child, what are you ? ” 

I'm Nancy Bates, Miss Halpine." 

May I ask, Nancy, your errand here ?" 

I came to answer your advertisement, if 
you please." 

But that called for a boy." 

‘^It's only the difference in clothes, isn't 
it ? Anyway, I wore my brother's things — 
to make it more real like. Please try me. 
Miss Halpine. Even if I didn't need the 


32 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


work terribly, — or the pay for it, I mean, — 
rd love to dig around in such a lovely 
place/’ 

The boys on the path began to grow nois} 
again, after listening thus far, and Nancy 
turned upon them fiercely : 

Now, you quit that and behave your- 
selves. If you don’t I’ll tell the whole 
business. There’s only — ” 

Girl-boy ! Tattletale ! ” called somebody 
in the crowd, and Nancy’s face grew red 
as her hair. But she still held herself in 
hand, and merely returned, in a very quiet 
tone : 

It’s fair play for those who really started 
to get the job to have a chance. If the rest 
of you don’t go back, you’ll be mighty late 
for school, and some of your folks won’t like 
that.” 

There was an uneasy movement amid the 
group, and some even faced about to follow 
her advice. Jimmy Lincoln, however, was 
not to be coerced by any girl, even one who 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


33 


was supported by her brother’s jacket, and 
retorted : 

‘‘Fair for one is fair for two. Tell us 
what you’re up to, and then, maybe, we’ll 
see.” 

“I’m up to this much. I’m square. I 
want this place if Miss Halpine will hire me. 
If she does. I’ll tell you why. If she doesn’t, 
why, then, it’s nobody’s business but mine, 
and — may the best man win ! Now, are 
you satisfied ? ” 

“ All right. Come on, fellows ! ” answered 
Jimmy ; and at their ringleader’s order all 
but two of the mischievous lads vanished 
from the premises. Those who remained 
were really anxious for the situation, yet, as 
inquiry disclosed, wholly unfitted for it. So 
Miss Lucretia dismissed them and then turned 
to Nancy for an explanation of this wholesale 
trespass on her privacy. 

“ Do you know why all those boys came 
here, when only two really wanted work ? ” 

Too tired to stand any longer, the girl 


34 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


dropped down on the topmost step, took off 
Frank’s jacket, and fanned herself with his 
hat, as she replied : 

“ You mustn’t be angry with, them, please. 
Miss Halpine. You won’t, will you ? ” 

Nancy was so unconscious of any rudeness 
in seating herself, uninvited, that the punc- 
tilious gentlewoman could feel no resentment, 
but began to find a sort of fascination in 
the child’s very homeliness. She had never 
seen a face whose plainness was so bright- 
ened by gay good humor and simplicity, and 
smiled as she asked : 

What has that to do with it ? ” 

‘‘ Only this. Miss Halpine. They’re all my 
schoolfellows, and jolly ones. This morning 
the last two, those you just sent away, saw 
your advertisement and started to answer it. 
The others knew they weren’t fit, being so 
little and untidy, and needing to be in school, 
anyhow ; so the rest just came along, pre- 
tending they’d all try. Every fellow they 
met they coaxed with them — I got wind of 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


35 


it and came across lots, ahead — and so it 
was just silly boys’ nonsense, a lark, you see. 
They didn’t mean any harm, and they didn’t 
think about having no business here till 
they were fairly on the grounds. Then they 
wouldn’t back out, no matter what. That’s 
’cause they’re boys. Girls, now — ” 

Just then Nancy saw a twinkle in her 
listener’s eyes and blushed even more deeply. 
Though she had often see Miss Halpine at 
church or driving about the town, she had 
never before spoken with the lady, and now 
realized that there was something different 
about this stately mistress of Cedarcroft from 
those with whom she was more familiar. She 
fancied that no young girl could be lovelier 
or more interesting than this delicate old 
gentlewoman with her snowy curls and pink 
cheeks, and with the cluster of violets tucked 
in the lace garniture of her gray morning 
gown. A yearning to know her better, to be 
worthy of her friendship, seized the strong- 
willed, unpolished applicant for labor; yet 


36 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


she felt that her mad prank of wearing 
Frank’s clothes had ruined her prospects, and, 
with a humility strange to herself, she rose 
to go away. 

‘‘ Miss Halpine, I beg your pardon It’s 
.queer that I didn’t think — though I never 
do think at the right time — how silly I was 
acting. I hope you’ll get a good boy right 
soon, and he ought to be as proud as Punch, 
if yonder’s the garden he’s to work in. That’s 
the loveliest bed of hyacinths I ever saw. 
Far prettier than the one in the park. Good 
morning.” 

Wait, child. Let us talk a few moments. 
I’d like to know more about you, if, as you 
said, you really need to earn money. Sit 
down again, please.” 

To sanguine Nancy this slight encourage- 
ment seemed full assurance of success, and 
the face she now raised toward her hostess 
was almost dazzling in its radiance. 

Yes, indeed, and thank you. What would 
you like to know ? ” 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


37 


Hum. I think anything and everything 
you care to tell.” 

Shall I begin at the beginning ? ” 

I fancy that’s the best way to tell a 
story.” 

So do I. Well, then, I suppose father’s 
the beginning. He’s Wilson Bates, a ^ boss ’ 
carpenter. He had the pneumonia last year 
and hasn’t been real well since. Mother, my 
own mother, would be next to him. She 
died when Frank was seven and I four years 
old. Aunt Mercy was mother’s sister and 
lived with us, and after awhile she and father 
married each other. That makes her my 
step-aunt-mother, and she’s as' good as gold. 
Then come my A-B-C-D stepbrothers, Adrian, 
Bertram, Claude, and Donald. Step-aunt- 
mother named them out of books, but father 
named the baby — Solomon. Frank is the 
smartest boy in Norwich, and had just had a 
place offered him in the big drug store when 
he got his knee cracked every which way, 
playing football. Now he has to lie on a cot 


38 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


with his leg in a plaster cast, and it will be 
months, maybe, before he can have the last 
one taken off. When he does, if he isn't to 
be lame always, he must wear a steel brace 
to keep his bones right. The brace will have 
to be made just to fit him, and will cost fifty 
or more dollars ; and we haven’t them, and 
that’s why.” 

“ Do you mean that you want to work in 
my garden in order to earn this money for 
your brother ? Do you love him so much ? ” 

Oh ! I do, I do ! ” 

Since you are the only daughter, if even 
a little one, how can you be spared from 
home ? Isn’t your duty there ? ” 

can be spared, easy enough. Step- 
aunt-mother is willing. You see it’s such a 
tiny home, and she’s such a good house- 
keeper.” 

But what about the sewing for such a 
large family? Though I’ve heard that the 
modern girls do very little of that.” 

Why, it isn’t large. There are only five 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


39 


small boys, and we buy them ready-made. 
It’s cheaper.” 

‘^Wh — at?” gasped the astonished Miss 
Lucretia. 

The clothes, of course, not the boys ! ” 
laughed Nancy, showing her well-kept teeth. 
Indeed, had she know it, her perfect clean- 
liness and wholesomeness were already more 
persuasive to her possible employer than the 
best written reference could have been. Miss 
Halpine had an extreme love for neatness, 
and this was equalled save by her other 
passion for floriculture, and only for the latter 
would she ever sacrifice the former. She 
saw that Nancy was deft and sure in her 
movements, and that her clean gingham frock 
needed no buttons. Had one been missing 
or a gather ripped, the girl’s prospects would 
have been less hopeful than they were; but, even 
so, there remained the question of wages and 
ability, and these matters must now be settled. 

Fifty dollars is a good deal of money. 
What do you expect to earn ? ” 


40 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


don’t know. Whatever any other boy 
would, I suppose.” 

Miss Halpine frowned, and said in reproof : 

Drop pretending boyhood. It isn’t nice, 
in a girl. A boy, a strong boy, would earn 
fifty cents a day — working days — and find 
himself. That, my man Solomon tells me, 
is the regular price.” 

Fifty cents a day ! Ooh-ee ! ” cried Nancy, 
to whom the sum seemed great. But how 
could I find myself if I’m already found ? ” 
Miss Lucretia laughed. That’s a provin- 
cialism, and means you will have to furnish 
your own food. Jane is too old to have any- 
thing added to her labors, and maybe would 
not cook for you, even if I asked her to do so. 
She and Solomon, her husband, have served 
me for forty years ; and they both resent the 
intrusion of any stranger, even a boy, into 
our quiet life. I live in my garden and my 
library, and must have no disturbances of any 
sort. Solomon has become rheumatic, and 
that is why I am seeking other help. My 


SEEKING A SITUATION 


41 


poor flowers must not suffer, even if he does. 
Come with me. ITl test your strength. 
There’s a border to be spaded, an empty 
one that you can’t hurt, and the soil is in 
just fit condition. Did you ever handle a 
spade ? ” 

No, Miss Halpine. I never had a chance.” 

‘‘ You shall have it now. This way, please.” 

From his armchair beside the kitchen win- 
dow the old gardener and man-of-all-work, 
Solomon Smith, watched his mistress and the 
small, red-headed girl cross the lawn to the 
tool-house. The lady stepped daintily, holding 
her skirts aloft as if she feared to hurt the 
tender grass, but the girl plunged ahead, 
digging her heels into the soft sod and thus 
angering her unseen observer, till he cried : 

Jane ! Jane Smith, come here ! Miss 
’Cretia’s boy is a girl, and she’s cutting that 
new-seeded plot all to flinders, tramping over 
it like a horse. Oh ! oh ! ” 

More like an ox, I should say. No horse 
ever trod that heavy. But don’t you worry. 


42 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Mistress won’t hire no girl to switch her 
petticoats ’mongst her posies.” 

She wouldn’t, hey ? Ain’t she a woman, 
and changeable? Look there. Look there, 
will you? The young one’s got hold of a 
spade she can hardly lug, and sakes ! she’s 
tackling that bed ’at I wouldn’t have touched 
for any money. Open this window, woman ! 
Open it quick ! ” 

Jane threw up the sash, and Solomon sent 
forth a yell so startling that Nancy dropped 
her spade and screeched a response, while 
Miss Halpine clapped her hands over her ears 
and waited, tremblingly, what next. It came 
in another outcry from the enraged gardener : 

Get out of there ! Get out of there, or 
I’ll fire my crutch at you ! ” 


CHAPTER III. 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 

What have I done ? For it must be I he 
means?” asked Nancy, laughing, yet fright- 
ened. 

I don’t understand. I thought there was 
nothing in this flower-bed. Please step to 
the window and ask him,” said Miss Halpine. 

The girl skipped house-ward, humming 
under her breath : 

“ There was an Old Man with the gout, 

Who sent forth a blood-curdling shout, 

Just because a young maid 
Had borrowed his spade 
To dig in a garden about.’’ 

Singing, are you. Sassy ? ” demanded 
Solomon, as Nancy paused just beyond arm’s 
reach from the window. 

I didn’t mean to sing ^ Sassy,’ and some 

48 


44 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


mightn’t call it ^ singing/ ” retorted she, 
having taken an instant and intense dislike 
to the irate Solomon. 

Well, you’re as peart as them there yellow 
crocuses yonder, and not nigh so pretty. You 
go back to Miss ’Cretia and tell her that 
border’s full of dormant verbenys. Self- 
seeded, and not to be touched by nobody, no 
matter who. You tell her I say so, or I’ll 
tell her myself if she’ll come nigh enough to 
give me a chance.” 

You’ll tell her ? You’d dare ? Speak 
like that to that splendid lady ? ” cried the 
small stranger, amazed. 

Well, I’d like to know why not ? ” was the 
return question, as the old man looked over 
his spectacles, the better to observe his re- 
prover. Haven’t I raised her, so to speak ? 
Was she anything more’n a chit of a girl when 
her folks died and left me and Jane in control ? 
Forty odd year I’ve took charge of Cedarcroft, 
and not to be set down at the end of ’em by 
a young one like you. You’d best be off to 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


45 


school, learnin’ sense, ’stead of pesterin’ Miss 
’Cretia.” 

Just then a spasm of pain seized the old 
man, and he shrieked aloud, causing Nancy to 
spring backward, afraid. Then she under- 
stood why, and ran to him, crying : 

Oh ! do you suffer like that ? Can’t I do 
something? Call somebody? Help in some 
way ? ” 

Yes, you can. You can quit asking ques- 
tions, shut that window, and get out ! ” he 
snapped, as, the twinge passing, he was able 
to speak. 

Thank you ! ” said the girl, promptly 
obeying, yet already sorry for her pertness 
toward one in such evident distress. 

Miss Halpine had waited for her by the for- 
bidden square of bare earth, and received the 
message very quietly, though Nancy had 
put it into a more courteous form than 
Solomon had given it. Indeed, despite 
his boast to the contrary, the faithful old 
fellow would never have personally ad- 


46 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


dressed his mistress save with utmost 
respect. 

Verbenas again ! I thought we were to 
have poppies here, this year. Well, no matter. 
The self-sown ones are sometimes very beauti- 
ful, and have the merit of fragrance, which 
plants from cuttings mostly lack. Here is a 
lighter tool, and weTl go to the vegetable patch, 
where, surely, you can do no harm thus early 
in the season.'' 

Nancy took the implement, which, while 
not so heavy as the first one, had a handle 
reaching high above her own head, and fol- 
lowed valiantly ; yet wondering if garden- 
ing " was nothing but spading," and trying 
to recall just how Mr. Wakeman did, when he 
sometimes turned a sod or two in his back 
yard for the benefit of his hens. 

I know. He puts the edge down straight, 
spits on his hands, — ugh ! can't do that ! — 
grunts and draws his breath, — swwiisshhd ! 
— jams his foot against the spade as if he 
hated it, -and — up she comes ! " 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


47 


Up it came, indeed ! With such sudden- 
ness that the small gardener lost her balance 
and tumbled backward. But she was erect 
again almost as quick as down, and laughing 
merrily at her own expense. 

“ You put too much force in it,'* explained 
Miss Halpine, who knew the use and abuse of 
every tool in her stock. The earth here is 
very soft, has been worked over for years and 
years, and is so rich that anything put in 
it grows luxuriantly. Try again, firmly, not 
jerkily. That’s the right way.” 

Funny. There’s a right and a wrong 
way to everything, isn’t there ? and funnier 
still that I always hit the wrong one first. 
There. Is that more like ? ” 

^‘Yes. That is very well, indeed. Oh! 
how good it seems to get into the garden 
again after the long winter.” 

Nancy’s intrusive nose had been sniffing 
and wrinkling itself in a peculiar fashion, and 
presently she inquired : 

Do you know what it is that smells so 


48 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


sweet? Seems as if I could just take up 
great handfuls of it — this way/' and she 
clasped her fingers about her nostrils with an 
ecstatic little gesture which left a muddy 
trace behind it. 

Miss Halpine smiled, well pleased, and 
cried, almost as joyously : 

It’s the odor of the earth, my dear. To 
every real gardener there is a delightful fra- 
grance in the freshly turned mold, and if 
you’ve discovered it already, you are certain 
to love your work.” 

Oh ! then you think I will do ? ” cried 
the girl, with another clasping of her hands 
and another of her dazzling smiles. 

Miss Halpine did not immediately reply. 
Though she felt almost as anxious to keep 
this eager small person in her service as the 
child was to remain there, the sight of Jane 
bearing down upon them from the direction 
of the house, armed with an umbrella, shawl, 
and overshoes, had suddenly recalled her to 
the practical side of the affair. Though she 



DIGGING 





JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


49 


wouldn’t have admitted it even to herself, in 
reality, she was much more afraid of Jane 
than the servant was of her. Jane dis- 
approved of sentiment in any form, and Miss 
Lucretia knew that there was more senti- 
ment than fact about Nancy’s spading. 

Indeed, the old housekeeper promptly called 
attention to this matter, pointing contemp- 
tuously downward and demanding : 

Do you call that there top-scratching 
digging ? Eh ? Why, a yearling baby could 
stir the sile deeper’n she does. I do hope. 
Miss ’Cretia, if you will insist upon havin’ 
intruders ’round, you’ll pick out such as are 
worth while. A chit of a child like that, and a 
girl into the bargain Sissy, how old be you ? ” 

Twelve,” answered Nancy, stoutly, and 
making herself as tall as she could. 

“ Twelve ? Humph ! You don’t look it. 
You’re nearer ten, I should say, if I was to 
judge.” 

Jane, you shouldn’t — ” began Miss Hal- 
pine, but Nancy interrupted, hotly : 


50 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


^^Then you aren’t a judge, that’s all. I 
was twelve years old last month, and if I’m 
small, I can’t help it. Size wasn’t mentioned 
in the advertisement, that I noticed.” 

^^Well, you’ve got one thing big enough, 
anyway : that’s your tongue. Here, I’ll 
show you how to spade. I can do it almost 
as well as Solomon does, only I can’t cook 
and garden, too. Watch me. This is the 
how of it ; ” and seizing the spade in her 
strong old hands, Jane thrust it deeply into 
the soft soil, brought it up heaping, and with 
a deep, moist hole left behind. 

^^Hmm. I see. Only, it’s so anglewormy. 
I hate crawly things. Don’t you ? ” 

Not such harmless crawlers as those. 
Their movements keep the ground aerated 
and free from mould — mould with a 
’u’ in it,” answered Miss Halpine, with a 
smile which now showed some disappoint- 
ment. 

Jane noticed the disappointment, and, hav- 
ing freed her mind to the mistress whom she 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


61 


tyrannized yet dearly loved, now graciously 
observed : 

Well, have your own way, honey, as you 
always do. You’ve more notions than sense 
about some things, and if this young one 
pleases you — yet how in reason can she ? — 
it’s your business, not mine. Life ain’t all 
catnip for any of us. But you put on your 
gum shoes and things, else you’ll get sick, 
just as spring is coming on, like you ’cused 
husband of doing. His trouble come by dis- 
pensation, but your'n ’ll be by foolhardiness. 
Folks getting on in years can’t resk being 
careless.” 

Though this last reminder was not intended 
for impertinence, it brought a deeper color 
to Miss Halpine’s cheek, and made Nancy 
furious. She had already, with girlish en- 
thusiasm, idealized her new acquaintance into 
a sort of saint, and now gazed after the 
retreating housekeeper with flashing eyes 
and clenched flsts ; then suddenly burst 
forth : 


52 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


There was an old woman named Jane, 

Who loved to give every one pain, 

So her mistress she hurt 
With a spadeful of dirt. 

That horrid old creature named Jane ! ” 

Then Miss Halpine laughed and de- 
manded : 

^^Why, child, are you given to that sort 
of thing?” 

I — I’m afraid I am. It’s silly, I know ; 
but you see the time has seemed so long to 
poor Frank, and it helped. But I’ll try not 
to do it here — if she’ll let me stay.” 

Miss Halpine winced. Childhood goes un- 
erringly to the truth, and it had been left for 
this outspoken girl to put the case as it really 
was, but, as the lady instantly resolved, it 
should be no longer. To Nancy she said, 
with kind decision : 

Anything which helps another to bear 
pain isn’t silly. You may have the situation, 
if your father, as well as stepmother, consents 
to it. I don’t know how much help you’ll be 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


53 


in the gardening line, but I am won by your 
sisterly love to give you a trial. When can 
you begin ? ” 

Right now, if you’ll let me ? ” 

Very well.” 

The promptness pleased Miss Lucretia, but 
she was rather dismayed by finding herself 
seized about the waist and enthusiastically 
hugged. Yet she was as suddenly released, 
and Nancy stood before her with down-dropped 
head and arms, looking penitent enough to 
please one even so fastidious as the mistress 
of Cedarcroft. 

Oh ! I do beg pardon. Miss Halpine. It 
has happened again, the doing first and think- 
ing afterward ! I just fancied how Frank 
would look when I told him he could have 
the brace, that I could earn it for him without 
bothering father. As he says, if he’d broken 
his leg in doing anything useful, it wouldn’t 
have seemed so mean. As it is, he’s not only 
lost the wages he was going to earn, but he’s 
been expense already. He’ll pay everything 


54 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


back, though, when he gets well. Now he’s 
so big he’d rather work for father than have 
father work for him. Oh ! Frank is just 
splendid. He’s the very best boy in Norwich.” 

Miss Lucretia sighed, for Nancy’s words 
brought back a memory of her own youth. 
Then she directed her new assistant to carry 
the spade to a distant part of the garden 
where some dead stalks annoyed her by their 
unsightliness. 

There, Nancy, pull all these up and pile 
them in a heap yonder. When you’ve cleaned 
out this corner thoroughly — thoroughly — 
come to me on the south porch and I’ll give 
you some matches to light the brush-heap. 
Keeping the ground free from rubbish is the 
first principle of gardening. But I’m tired 
of standing and will rest by looking over my 
seed catalogues. Maybe I’ll let you help 
choose what to order from them. Should 
you like that?” 

^^Oh, I’d love it! I — I — ” 

You what ? ” 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


55 


Please don’t be angry, but I just love — 
you ! ” 

Ah ! child, none could be angry at that, 
though I fear it’s the glamour of spring upon 
you as upon the birds. Listen to them sing- 
ing.” 

Left alone, Nancy assailed her task vigor- 
ously, and, since the dead plants yielded easily, 
it was soon accomplished. When the last 
little stalk had been placed on the brush-pile, 
she rested and surveyed the ground, reflect- 
ing: 

It certainly does look a deal tidier now, 
and hurrah ! what a chance to learn how 
to dig ! Nobody can see me from the house, 
because the porch and kitchen are on the 
other side of it. I’ll surprise that sweet Miss 
’Cretia, and show her I can be a real help, 
even if she doesn’t think I will be. Now, 
old spade, do your duty. Here you go. 
Why — why, what’s the matter ? ” 

This proved a very different bit of ground 
from that on which she had first experimented. 


56 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Though the surface looked equally soft, there 
lay beneath it a tangle of roots which stub- 
bornly resisted her utmost strength and upon 
which her sharp-edged tool made no impres- 
sion. But this resistance was fuel to the flame 
of her ambition, and she cried, defiantly : 

I ‘ never say die ! ’ If you old roots won’t 
come out one way, you must another. She 
said thoroughly,’ and you shall not master 
me.” 

A sharpened stake lay conveniently near, 
and with this, the spade-handle, and her own 
fingers, the novice at gardening unearthed her 
foe. Each root that was loosened made the 
next yield more easily, and when the last 
knotted enemy was out and upon the heap, 
she paused, a very proud but weary girl. 

How I wish I had the matches she prom- 
ised, then the surprise would be perfect. Any- 
way, I must go for them, surprise or not.” 

But fortune favored her ambition. Miss 
Halpine was asleep in her chair and the 
box of matches stood on a table beside her. 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


57 


Nancy swiftly secured them and vanished, 
and soon there stole upon the air the odor of 
burning brush. 

Miss Lucretia dozed comfortably in her 
great rocker, and, wearied by a night of 
pain, Solomon slumbered more heavily in 
the kitchen beyond. Jane was quite too busy 
to drowse or to observe anything save the 
task in hand, till her husband suddenly awoke, 
sniffed, and exclaimed : Something’s burn- 
ing ! ” 

Course there is. I just put wood in the 
stove. Even I haven’t learnt yet to bake 
bread without fuel,” snapped the overtaxed 
woman, who really loved her husband, yet 
resented his illness as if it were a crime. 

Fudge ! It’s outside. It’s bresh. Where’s 
Miss ’Cretia ? ” 

^^Sleepin’ the sleep of the rich, on the 
porch yonder.” 

Where’s that red-headed saucebox ? ” 

Gone about her business, I suppose. I 
haven’t seen her this dog’s age.” 


58 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Solomon tried to compose himself, but the 
smoke could now be seen as well as smelled, 
and he grew seriously alarmed, and cried out : 

I tell you that’s a fire, and it’s right here 
on our own property. That ain’t no neigh- 
bor’s work. Help me to get up.” 

Get up ! Why, Solomon Smith, you 
haven’t source touched foot to floor this fort- 
night.” 

Well, I’ll touch it to ground now, then. 
I won’t sit here and not know what’s doin’. 
Help me up, I say.” 

Secretly pleased, Jane promptly obeyed, 
and by her aid, though in great pain, the old 
gardener made his way around the house, 
whence the smoke issued, and paused — dis- 
mayed. There, in the middle of his own 
vegetable patch, was a blazing bonfire, and 
the red-headed girl merrily skipping about it 
and prodding it, while she sang, at the top of 
her voice : 

There was a young gardener flouted 

By some hateful old roots hadnT sprouted, 


JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES 


59 


But she dug all about 
And made ’em come out, 

Till the toughest old rooter was routed.” 

Miss Halpine had also now appeared on 
the scene, which she regarded with astonish- 
ment, and, as her too ambitious assistant 
suddenly wheeled about and faced the trio of 
observers, there followed an ominous silence. 
During this silence Solomon’s glance had 
flown from the bonfire to the newly cleared 
corner, and in a tone so terrible it made the 
innocent words seem profane, he yelled : 
Je-ru-sa-lem ar-ti-chokes ! 


CHAPTER IV. 


father’s bad news 

Oh ! oh ! I’m the happiest girl in Nor- 
wich ! Franksy, Franksy, Frank ! I’m going 
to do it all myself ! ” cried Nancy, rushing 
breathlessly through the cottage and dropping 
down on the floor beside her brother’s cot. 

What’s up now, you dear little red- 
headed whirlwind ? ” 

“ Thank you. Is that the color of a 
whirlwind’s hair? I guess you’d rush, too, if 
you had such glorious news. Tell me, brother 
mine, have you missed me ? ” 

^^Umm. Well, yes, a little,” admitted the 
lad, reluctantly. ^^The newspaper you left 
blew away, and mother went to market, and 
a cat climbed in the kitchen window. If she 
left anything to eat there, it probably stole it. 
It isn’t fair for everybody to go ofl and leave 


FATHER’S BAD NEWS 


61 


me alone, helpless, like this. If ever I get 
up again — ’’ 

WeTl hurrah ourselves hoarse. I’m sorry ; 
but we must think a way to have you help 
your own self. You see, I can’t be in two 
places at once.” 

Then, Nancy Bates, the right place for 
any sister to be is taking care of her brother, 
if she really loves him as she says.” 

^‘Love you, Franksy? You splendid boy, 
just listen. You are going to have your 
fifty-dollar brace, and it isn’t to cost father 
one cent ! Ooh-ee ! ” 

The cripple raised himself on his elbow 
and clutched her skirt, as, having heard her 
mother’s voice, she sprang up to tell her the 
good news. 

What do you mean ? ” 

Before she could reply, Mrs. Bates came 
out on the porch, and the girl gave her an 
affectionate caress, exclaiming : I’ve got 
it, step-aunt-mother ! Where’s Solemnity ? 
Asleep? I’m so glad. Sit right down here 


62 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


close to Franks and I’ll tell you both together. 
But treat me with respect, if you please, 
the darling pair of you. I’m a money- 
earner ; I’m Miss Halpine’s new boy ; 
and she’s the loveliest thing ! Oh ! do you 
suppose I could ever, ever grow to be like 
her?” 

Mrs. Bates’s thin face had brightened al- 
ready, seeing the girl so happy, and even 
Frank’s irritability had vanished, though he 
said, teasingly : 

You’ll have to look after your nose first. 
I never saw that aristocratic lady with smut 
on hers.” 

Have I? Well, there’s one good thing 
about noses, they’ll wash. I got that in 
burning ^ J e-ru-sa-lem Ar-ti-chokes ! ’ Oh, 
Frank ! I wish you coidd have seen Solomon ! 
Not our little mite, but a big, grizzly, grumpy 
old man who’s lived with Miss Lucretia for 
forty years ! Think of that ! Forty years 
seems forever, doesn’t it?” 

Nancy, child, do tell us all about it. 


FATHER’S BAB NEWS 


6B 


Baby will wake soon, and I'm so anxious to 
hear everything/' urged the mother. 

Well, then, here it is in just the regular 
fashion we always tell things. I went from 
here — No, this way : Once upon a time there 
was a girl who borrowed her brother's things 
and went to answer an advertisement of ^ Boy 
Wanted;' and every other real boy in the 
town of Norwich, it seemed, went too ; " and 
here Nancy gave a brief description of all 
that had occurred at Cedarcroft up till the 
time of her leaving it, finishing with an ex- 
planation of Solomon’s behavior at the 
bonfire. 

When he said that, ‘ J erusalem Arti- 
chokes,’ it sounded — awful. But right away 
I saw that Miss Halpine wasn’t a bit shocked, 
and that, though she said she wouldn’t have 
had it done if she’d known it, she wasn’t 
really displeased that it had been done 
without. You see — ahem ! listen to a gar- 
dener explaining — Jerusalem artichokes are 
something like potatoes, only, as Jane said. 


64 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


^ not nigh so hulsome/ and once they ^ get 
started in a patch of ground, they stick to it 
like original sin to human natur/ Jane’s the 
funniest old body, but I know I shall like her. 
I shall like Solomon, too, after a little while. 
I don’t believe he’s half as cross as he’s achey. 
Well, Solomon likes artichokes pickled, and 
they don’t like him. They give him Mys- 
pepsy,’ and Jane was so glad I’d dug them 
up that it vexed him worse than ever. ^ But 
they’ll spring up again, husband,’ she con- 
soled him, and my Miss Lucretia said : ^ Yes, 
that’s the worst of it. They’re like Jane’s 
idea of sin ; both are deep-rooted and peren- 
nial.’ Say, Frank Bates, do you know what 
perennial means?” 

Do you ?” 

There ! I knew you didn’t, else you’d 
never have hidden your wisdom under an- 
other question. I do, though. Miss ’Cretia 
told me. It’s a ‘ never say die ’ kind of plant, 
and that’s the kind of a gardener I’m going 
to be. If father is willing! Miss Halpine 


FATHER’S BAD NEWS 


65 


says she must see him or hear from him 
before she considers the engagement final. 
Doesn’t that sound big and grown-up ? ” 
Come down to facts, Nancy. How much 
cash will this engagement ’ be worth ? I’m 
selfish enough to be anxious over that part.” 

Fifty cents a day, from ^ sun-up till sun- 
down,’ as Jane told me was ^ reg’lar.’ Think 
of that, for just Nancy Bates, who never 
had fifty cents of her own in all her life ! 
Ooh-ee ! And only my ^ victuals and drink ’ 
to ‘ find ’ for myself. Why — why — aren’t 
you pleased ? ” 

The baby had wakened and his mother dis- 
appeared before Frank put the question about 
wages, and, somehow, he felt more free to 
express his disappointment when her gentle 
eyes could no longer reprove him for it. 

Nancy, how far have you got in arithme- 
tic?” 

^^Far enough to know that fifty cents is 
half a dollar, and that it takes a good many 
half-dollars to make fifty whole ones. But — 


66 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


it’s generous, Jane says, for a little greenhorn 
like me. She did really say ^ ’at hadn’t no 
strength, scurcely,’ but changed her mind, 
remembering the artichoke roots.” 

It won’t pay for your shoes and clothes.” 

“ I could go without shoes, if Miss Halpine 
would let me, and anyway, I’m going to 
borrow Adrian’s rubber boots to-morrow — if 
there is a to-morrow for me at Cedarcroft. 
I do hope father’ll come home early, and not 
too tired to go out there. It all depends on 
him now.” 

Mrs. Bates appeared at the door, asking : 

My child, have you had anything to eat 
since breakfast ? ” 

Yes, indeed ! Thank you. Jane surprised 
her mistress by giving me two big sandwiches. 
Miss ’Cretia wouldn’t have dared ask for them, 
I believe ; for, though she doesn’t seem to 
know it herself, she acts as afraid of them as 
if she was working for them, not they for 
her. It’s the sharp way they speak, I guess, 
and she’s so gentle. I’ll show them what’s 


FATHER’S BAD NEWS 


67 


what, though, if I go back there. Oh! I 
hope I can 1 I want to so much.” 

For fifty cents a day ? You’d work like 
a day-laborer for that ? Oh, if I could only 
get up and show you ! ” 

Yes, Franksy, brotherkin — ” 

Quit coddling.” 

Mr. Bates ! You so remind me of some- 
body I’ve met. I think, I really do think, 
it’s Solomon Smith, the Grumpy.” 

Thank you,” answered the boy, but he 
laughed. 

Let’s do another sum in Yithmetic. Noth- 
ing times nothing is nothing. Six times fifty 
is three hundred. Eight times three — is 
twenty-four dollars. You’ve got to keep still 
for eight weeks, anyway, before you could 
put on the brace, even if you had it. Well, 
then, you’ll be twenty-four dollars better off 
if I work than you will if I don’t. Twenty- 
four dollar^ isn’t a whole brace^ but it’s a 
good piece of one. It’s several straps, at 
least.” 


68 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


But to lie here like a log, knowing that 
my sister, my poor little sister, is digging and 
weeding, and getting looked down on just for 
me, — I can't bear it!" cried the brother, 
hiding his face with his hands, ashamed of 
the emotion he could not control. In fact, 
the enforced quiet and confinement had un- 
nerved the hitherto active boy, and the sister 
had been warned to ignore any such breakings 
down. So she waited a little, and then said : 

Please don't go to ^ pooring ' me. I like 
it. I’d be glad to work in that beautiful 
garden under such a beautiful mistress for 
nothing, if she’d have me. And as for the 
looking-down part, — that's all right. If 
other folks look down, I can look up. I shall 
always have to, I guess, for I’m what Mrs. 
Wakeman said to Hiram. She said : ^ That 
girl of Bateses '11 be no great shakes of a 
woman, even if she gets to be one at all.' ” 
Her imitation of their neighbor’s manner- 
ism was so apt that the sick lad laughed, and 
Nancy added : 


FATHER’S BAD NEWS 


69 


“ As for pride, that’s the funniest thing. 
Father is only a carpenter, but he’s just the 
finest kind of one there can be. He never 
leaves a thing till it’s as perfect as he can 
make it, and I’m prouder of that than I 
would be if we lived in a big house and had 
lots of money. If we had a big house we’d 
have more to do in it, and if we had money, 
we wouldn’t know the fun of earning it. So 
there ! Trot out your next argument against 
my ^ job,’ and I’ll knock it down like a nine- 
pin.” 

The fun of earning it ! I reckon you’ll 
find out what that is the very first day.” 

Right you are, sir prophet. Here are 
the proofs,” and Nancy displayed her plump 
palms, already blistered and bruised by the 
unaccustomed labor she had done. 

Nancy Bates ! ” 

^^Yes, I see. They’re pretty muddy and 
grimy. I’ll go wash them and brush my 
radiant tresses before father finds me untidy. 
Ah ! there he comes down the road this min- 


70 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


ute; and he walks as if he were dreadfully 
tired. Cheer him up, laddie, cheer him up 
till I get back. ITl be quick as a wink.’’ 

Yet, swift as she was, Mr. Bates had al- 
ready drawn his chair to the table, on which 
his wife was placing the supper, and seemed 
so preoccupied that nobody disturbed him 
with any talk till he had finished his meal 
and pushed back. Even the alphabetical little 
hoys were more quiet than usual, and Adri- 
an’s face was flushed, while he left his bread 
and milk untasted. The mother grew anx- 
ious, and led him away to bed, the younger 
ones following of their own accord, since there 
was no fun in staying up after their leader 
was asleep. Little Solomon played solemnly 
with his blocks, patiently rebuilding the tiny 
houses, which always fell down as often as he 
got them fairly started. 

My carpenter boy,” the father called him, 
but to-night had no attention even for this 
household pet. Instead of that, he walked to 
the window and looked thoughtfully out upon 


FATHER’S BAD NEWS 


71 


the darkening world. It seemed to Nancy, 
watching and eager, that his tall figure had 
never looked so thin and stooping, and it was 
with sympathy for his unknown trouble, as 
well as eagerness to tell her own story, that 
she crossed to where he stood, and slipped her 
hand in his. 

Father, I want to talk to you a minute.'’ 

Do you, my daughter ? " And, sitting 
down, he took her on his knee. 

If it won’t bother you, I’d like to tell you 
I’ve got a ^ job,’ too, same as you have.” 

^^Same as I haven’t, you mean, dear,” he 
answered, soberly. 

Haven’t you ? Why — what — ” 

The mill has shut down. Nobody knows 
if it will ever be reopened.” 

Oh, father ! How terrible ! ” 

Young as she was, Nancy fully understood 
that the closing of the mill meant no employ- 
ment for hundreds of men, and no employ- 
ment meant no money. For a moment she 
was dismayed, remembering some former bit- 


72 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


ter days of pinching poverty, then instantly 
rallied, exclaiming: 

Well, never mind, father dear, I can help 
you. Indeed and indeed I can. I’ve got 
a place in an outdoor sort of mill, if you’ll 
let me keep it, and my mill won’t close till it 
freezes up. Listen, you darling father, till 
I tell you.” 

She told her story rapidly, interspersed by 
many warning nods and winks at her brother, 
through the window, thus forbidding him to 
mention her original reason for seeking a sit- 
uation. Of course, the brace would have to 
wait, indefinitely, and she mustn’t think 
about that disappointment. 

Say I may, father, please. Three dollars 
a week will buy lots of bread and butter, 
and we Bateses are always so terribly 
hungry.” 

Bless you. Sunshine ! You’re worth a 
gold mine to me ! You shame me for my 
downheartedness, and, of course, I do say — 
What do I say. Miss Nancy?” 


FATHER’S BAD NEWS 


73 


Yes ? No ? Oh ! which is it ? Quick, 
Quick ! ” 

I’ll surprise you : yes 1 ” 

It did surprise her. She hadn’t hoped for 
such an easy victory over the many objections 
she had fancied he would raise, even though 
her mother had approved. 

Oh ! thank you, thank you I ” 

Why, child, one would think I had prom- 
ised you a holiday instead of a summer of 
hard work. Putting the money quite out 
of the question, the association with Miss 
Hal pine and the life in the open air will 
be fine for you. I have heard that your 
school will not be reopened for the present, 
for measles has become epidemic, and your 
teacher still remains very ill. Since I must 
be idle, anyway, or most of the time, I can 
look after Frank and help mother with the 
children. There is no reason against your 
plan except that of overtaxing your strength. 
But as for the money, you may keep that for 
yourself. Not all our savings went for my 


74 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


illness, and though I hate to use the last of 
them, when needs must, there's no help.” 

Oh, you darling father ! It's so good to 
have you smiling again.'' 

^^Was I so glum, then? Well, I'm not 
now. Bitter with the sweet — that's the way 
of the world.” 

Jane says, ^ Life isn't all catnip,' and 
that's what you mean, too, I suppose.” 

Yes. One word more, daughter, and 
then I'll leave your future experience to do 
the lecturing.' If you take this situation, 
you must keep your contract. Even though 
you're but a child, nothing save illness, or her 
own dissatisfaction, can excuse you from be- 
ing at Miss Halpine's on every working-day. 
This isn't a ^ lark,' and it won't be all fun nor 
pay-day. So think twice before you begin. 
Now we must get poor Frank moved in from 
the porch and to bed. That's the place for 
small gardeners also; and by the time I've 
settled him for the night you must have 
made up your mind whether you really wish 


FATHER’S BAD NEWS 


75 


me to walk out and arrange things with the 
lady at Cedarcroft or not. If so, I will go.” 

“ I sha’n’t change my mind, father ; but 
what is there to arrange ? All you need do 
is say ‘yes,’ or write a note.” 

“ She is entitled to the courtesy of a per- 
sonal visit. I consider that she is dealing 
very generously with a little, ignorant girl 
like you.” 

Now, father ! When I was feeling so big 
and wise ! ” laughed Nancy, kissing his hand. 
And though he smiled back upon her very 
tenderly, he had made her feel very serious. 
As for Frank — one glance at his gloomy 
face lightened her own, and called forth an 
appropriate “ Limerick : ” 

Though you’d better have two legs than one, 
You’d far better have one leg than none ; 

And your wearing of plaster 
Is no great disaster, 

Since you needn’t get up with the sun. 

There, big brother. That’s the silver lining 
to your cloud ; but the cloud to my silver 


76 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


lining is that I must. From ‘ sun-up,’ Jane 
said, so good night to you.” 

Frank’s morning laziness was an old griev- 
ance in the household, and Nancy slipped 
away while he was still laughing at her hint 
of his one compensation for his lameness. 


CHAPTER V. 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 

The sound of a childish voice singing 

Yankee Doodle ’’ sent Miss Halpine to her 
window early the next morning, and there 
was Nancy, clad in rubber boots which were 
too big for her and a faded mackintosh that 
was too short, her red hair curling ever 
tighter and more tight as she sat, bareheaded, 
on the oak-tree bench in a drizzling rain. 

^^Well, of all things! She is promptness 
itself. But she’ll be drenched.” Then the lady 
threw up the sash, and called : Nancy ! ” 

Yes, Miss Halpine. Good morning.” 

It’s raining.” 

I guess I know that. It’s a lovely rain, 
though, as sweet as sweet.” 

“ That’s true. The air is delightful. But 

why don’t you go in the house ? ” 

77 


78 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


I thought I was only for the garden, and 
— and I haven’t been invited.” 

It was not probable that she would be,^ 
either, since Jane had just come to the kitchen 
door and looked out upon the child without 
saying anything, even a return good morn- 
ing” to that which Nancy had spoken to 
her. Indeed, the housekeeper had had an- 
other troublesome night with her rheumatic 
husband, and was already weary before be- 
ginning her day’s work. So she assured 
Solomon that: 

^^ril let that young one set there till she 
sprouts before I’ll touch tongue to bringin’ 
her into my clean kitchen. If she was a boy, 
that she ought to have been, I could set her 
splittin’ kindling. But a girl is no account 
nohow.” 

^^Well, it’s good weather for sproutin’. 
Every plaguey thing in that garden ’ll grow 
to-day like it was possessed.” 

Nothin’ much in it to grow, savin’ weeds, 
and I, for one, ’d rather wrestle with big ones 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


79 


than little ones. Something to get hold of, 
seems if.’’ 

Solomon fell to thinking. He suddenly 
remembered that even a girl might have 
her uses if she could be dealt with proper,” 
and inquired of his wife if she s’posed Miss 
’Cretia was hirin’ Sissy for flowers or vege- 
tables, or mixed ? ” 

I don’t know and I don’t care. I hear 
her a-comin’ down-stairs this instant, and 
that’s ten full minutes before time. She 
needn’t think I’m going to put breakfast for- 
ward just for hired girls, and that’s what it 
means.” 

Miss Hal pine’s bell rang, and the pair in the 
kitchen heard the dining-room window opened, 
while the lady’s voice again called : Nancy ! ” 
The little girl ran swiftly to the porch, 
wiped her feet on the mat at the foot of the 
steps, and hurried to the window. 

Child, have you had breakfast already ? ” 
‘^Yes, thank you. And I’ve brought my 
lunch, too.” 


80 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


You must be early risers at your house/’ 

We are, though I didn’t wait for the rest ^ 
this morning. I took father’s alarm-clock to 
bed with me, and it — I put it under my 
pillow, and it scared me almost into a fit ! 
Then I got my bread and milk, and boiled an 
egg hard to eat with my bread this noon. 
Now, what am I to do first ? If you’ll tell 
me. I’ll begin right away.” 

On a rainy day — I hardly know. If it 
isn’t too wet, by and by, I’d like to have you 
weed the lily-of-th e-valley bed. The pips 
have hardly started and wouldn’t be dis- 
turbed. Then, if we cover it with a layer of 
light soil, they should be fine this year. See ! 
That is it all across the east side of the house.” 

All that ? My ! ” 

Yes. The bed is older than I am. I 
can’t remember a single May that I haven’t 
sat in the library to smell my lilies. Ah, my 
dear ! You have come to work in a really 
wonderful old garden, and I hope you will 
love it a little. Now — ” 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


81 


Jane interrupted by appearing at the inner 
door, bidding her mistress good morning, and 
asking : 

Will you please step into the kitchen 
a minute. Miss ’Cretia ? Solomon, he’s got 
some idee in his head ’at he wants to get rid 
of. Somethin’ about his ^ early roses ’ pota- 
toes, you know.” 

Miss Halpine went to Solomon, crouching 
over the stove, though to her the room seemed 
insufferably warm, and inquired : 

How are you this morning, Solomon ? 
Better, I hope.” 

Hmm. Then you needn’t hope. This is 
as good weather for rheumatiz as ’tis for 
growin’. Umm — hey — ahem. Say, Miss 
’Cretia, was the boy to be just for posies or 
for general gardening?” 

“ Mostly for posies, though she might do a 
little general gardening upon occasion. Why ? 
Did you find her so thorough with your arti- 
chokes that you’re willing to trust her else- 
where ? ” 


82 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


Laugh away. Miss ’Cretia. It does me 
good to hear you. I can laugh, too, for them 
artichokes are only top-dressed, so to speak. 
I Tow ITl have a finer crop than ever, soon 
as the new roots get started again. What I 
was thinking was — ‘ early roses.’ There’s 
one sack of them down suller that’s particular 
fine. I planned to plant ’em on that south 
slope, the patch nigh the crick. They’ll grow 
everlastingly there, and come to eatin’ long 
before any others is ready. If I could get 
’em sprouted and cut for seed, it would be a 
help. Seems if.” 

Very well. Nancy may do that for you, 
if she will. I’ll ask her, and you can show 
her exactly how. She could fix them in the 
wood-house, and the litter could be swept 
out. I’ll call her.” 

Really very glad of a task so simple as this 
on which to employ Nancy under the shelter 
of a roof. Miss Halpine summoned the girl, 
while Solomon grimly refiected : 

Puts it like a favor, don’t she ? Wants 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


83 


me to understand, first ofi, that this young one 
is her helper, not mine. Well, any port in a 
storm, and don’t see how she could do any 
damage with them seed potatoes. I don’t 
see.” 

Nancy was as ready to tackle the potato cut- 
ting as she had been the brush burning of 
the previous day ; so Jane soon brought a 
few of the roses ” in a tin dish, and with a 
small knife Solomon showed how they were 
to be prepared. 

“ Where the sprouts are long, like this one, 
you rub ’em ofi with your fingers. Then you 
cut the potato into about three four pieces, 
leavin’ two three eyes to a piece. You drop 
’em in a basket, and if you’ve got any wit at 
all, you’ll be some real help. Now go. Your 
clothes are all wet and give me the shivers. 
If I should catch more cold, I don’t know 
what.” 

Nancy took the basin and started ; but 
alas ! she was a hungry little human creature. 
The cold bread and milk she had eaten for 


84 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


breakfast had already lost its sustaining power 
during her long walk, or run, from home ; 
and Jane’s delicately browned fried potatoes, 
her scrambled eggs, the fragrant coffee, and 
best of all, the appetizing flannel cakes which 
she tossed upon her griddle, were simply 
fascinating. 

Miss Halpine had returned to her dining- 
room, feeling as if she must invite the 
stranger to share her own meal, yet thinking 
it wiser to begin as she could hold out. 
There would be other rainy days, and she 
had distinctly stipulated that her assistant 
should board herself.” 

Jane — well, there was no telling what 
Jane might or might not do. She was an 
old lady of many impulses, contradictory ones, 
and for the present things must “ shape 
themselves.” 

The food served to her mistress, the house- 
keeper returned to her kitchen, and with a 
deal of groaning and grumbling wiped imag- 
inary moisture from the spot on the floor 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


85 


where Nancy had stood to receive Solomon’s 
instructions. Then she gave her husband 
his share of the breakfast and sat down to 
enjoy her own. Yet, somehow, enjoy ” 
was not just expressive of the household 
appetites that morning. Into each mind 
would obtrude the vision of a small girl with 
hungry eyes, sitting alone in a damp outhouse, 
monotonously cutting into bits a heap of 
colder, damper potatoes. 

But, breakfast past, the vision ceased to 
trouble them, and for two hours thereafter 
Nancy was almost forgotten. Outside the 
wood-house the rain streamed as if it had 
never rained before and must do the thing 
up thoroughly now it was about it. The 
grass and the springing plants were happy, 
though, except the opening hyacinths ; who 
dropped their heavy heads as if they felt 
this too much of a good thing, till the girl, 
watching them, began to pity and talk to 
them as if they were little sisters of the soil 
to be comforted. 


86 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


All this did not tend to her remembrance 
of Solomon’s explanations, and most of the 
precious roses ” she cut into bits by the sense 
of feeling rather than sight. To her, how- 
ever, the result seemed the same, and when 
she had completed her task she lifted the 
heavy basket and carried, or dragged, it to 
the house. 

^^Done already? You don’t tell me that, 
child ! ” cried the old gardener, as she en- 
tered, and doubtful whether to be pleased or 
otherwise. ^^Why, ’twould ha’ took me all 
mornin’ to cut them potatoes as they should 
be cut. Set the basket down on that rug, 
yonder, and fetch me a handful.” 

Nancy scooped her two small hands full 
and deposited their contents within Solomon’s 
larger palms. She was delighted that by her 
quickness, at least, she could please this diffi- 
cult old man. 

But, alas ! No sooner had his keen glance 
rested on the cuttings than' his eager face 
underwent a terrible transformation, and 



“AND MOST OF THE PRECIOUS ‘ROSES.’ SHE CUT INTO 

BITS.” 





A MEMORABLE MORNING 


..87 


Nancy retreated in fright, expecting he would 
fling them into her own. Which was just 
what he would have liked to do, save that 
Miss Halpine was then entering the kitchen, 
and he dared not. He contented himself 
with leaning back in his chair, closing his 
angry eyes, and groaning as if in utter despair. 

<< Why — why — my good Solomon ! What 
is wrong with you? Are you suffering so 
greatly ? cried the mistress, going swiftly to 
him and laying her hand upon his quivering 
shoulder. 

Then he looked up and groaned again. 

Oh ! Miss ’Cretia, Miss ’Cretia, you poor, 
misguided creatur’ ! 

Yes, I suppose I am. None of us do 
right all the time, but what is it now ? 
answered the lady, annoyed by his ridiculous 
behavior, for she soon understood that it was 
not physical pain which evoked these moans. 

That — that — Nancy.’’ 

I see her ; and very diligently she must 
have worked to finish the cutting so soon.” 


88 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Finished ! Yes, she has. She's finished 
’em to the end. See them pieces ? Take ’em 
and look at ’em ! ” 

I can see them in your hand just as well. 
What’s wrong with them ? They seem very 
cleverly done ; ” yet even as she said this, 
Miss Halpine perceived what he meant and 
her own face grew grave. 

The very last sack of ’em we had. The 
prime ones, picked out for seed. Sp’iled even 
for chicken-feed,” lamented the gardener. 

“ Well, since we don’t keep chickens, on 
account of the gardens, I don’t see that it 
matters much. Maybe the rest are cut right 
even if these aren’t. Anyway — ” 

He interrupted her without ceremony. 

This ain’t no triflin’ mishap. Miss Halpine, 
this here is a calamity. I ’lowed I’d raise 
the best crop was ever raised on this prop- 
erty. I was goin’ to take a premium with it 
to the county fair, come autumn. I can’t re- 
place ’em, and you can’t. I don’t believe 
there’s a farmer around would sell seed of 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


89 


^ early roses/ even if we had money to fool 
away. My advice to you is : Get shut of 
that blunderin' young one before you can say 
Jack Robinson. Only come yesterday, and 
done mischief enough now, more’n she's 
worth." 

Poor Nancy had waited, a silent listener to 
this discussion, her heart growing more heavy 
with each sentence, and tears coming danger- 
ously near her big brown eyes. But she 
winked so fast they couldn't fall, and, keep- 
ing a safe distance from Solomon's reach, 
she went to Miss Lucretia and asked : 

Will you please tell me what I've done ? " 
The lady was herself too thorough a gar- 
dener not to be annoyed by what had hap- 
pened, but she liked Nancy and was sorry for 
her evident distress ; so she explained, as 
gently as possible : 

The potato cuttings are useless now for 
planting. I'm afraid you didn’t listen as 
carefully to Solomon's instructions as you 
should. He must have told you — " 


90 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


I did ! I told her forty times over — ’’ 
interjected he. 

Hardly so many, I fancy/’ she corrected. 

He must have told you once, at least, that 
each piece should have two or more ^ eyes ’ 
left on it. These ^ eyes ’ are the growing 
points, and without them the plants will not 
germinate, but the bits will simply decay in 
the ground. All these cuttings which he’s 
holding have been slashed either through 
their growing points, or have none at all left 
on them. If the rest are like them, they are 
fit only for the compost heap. But don’t 
look so unhappy, for I fancy you’ll not be 
inattentive again.” 

^ Again ? ’ Then will you, can you, 
keep me after what I’ve done ? Two days 
and in disgrace twice already. I — do 
you suppose I can ever learn ? Will 
you give me another trial ? I want to 
stay, and if the money — of course, I 
shouldn’t take any till the loss was made 
good. I — 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


91 


Miss Halpine smiled very kindly, as she 
answered : 

Most certainly I shall keep you till you 
have had a fairer chance to show what is in 
you. One has to learn every new business, 
and a girl who is willing to do what you’ve 
undertaken, just from love for a brother — I 
have deep interest in her. Now come with 
me ; and Jane, please bring a plate of puppy- 
noses into the little sewing-room. I’m going 
to sort and sift my home-grown seeds, and 
they’ll taste nice.” 

Nancy followed eagerly, yet wondering not 
a little at the peculiar appetite of a lady who 
would eat puppy-noses,” and where a supply 
of such could be procured. However, when 
brought, these proved to be nothing but 
dark-skinned apples, whose shape gave them 
their name, and which were as sound and 
delicious now, after a winter’s storage, as 
when first gathered. 

Put the plate right beside yourself, 
Nancy, and eat as many as you like. One is 


92 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


all I enjoy now, but when I was your age, I 
thought nothing of a half-dozen. Now, 
observe. All these seeds were gathered with 
their husks on, and have dried through the 
winter. These phloxes are especially fine, 
and I don’t want to lose one. Here is a little 
sieve that just suits them. Break, very care- 
fully, any husks which have not opened of 
themselves, and sift the whole over this box. 
I will write the names on these tiny envel- 
opes, and as soon as the ground is fit, we’ll 
sow them. I love phloxes ; they’re so bright 
and clean. They last, too, till after heavy 
frosts. These sweet peas are coarser, and can 
be sorted without a sieve. But handle all 
gently. The little, dead-looking things are 
full of life.” 

It doesn’t seem so, does it ? What a lot 
you know about plants, don’t you ? ” 

Well, I should know something. They’ve 
been my closest companions for almost all my 
life. My friends, indeed, that I love as if they 
were human. I couldn’t do without them.” 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


93 


Nancy looked in surprise at this gray-haired 
lady whose life seemed so lonely yet whose 
face was so serene, and resolved that no care- 
lessness on her own part should ever bring a 
cloud to it again. This seed sorting was a part 
of gardening which was wholly delightful, and 
when all was done her employer directed : 

Now take this blank book and write the 
names of the packets in it with the numbers 
after them, just as I’ve marked them.” 

Nancy took the pen, but paused at the first 
word, exclaiming : 

^W'hy, it’s Latin, I guess, or something 
foreign. I never studied Latin, and maybe 
I’ll not write it right.” 

Surely, you can copy. Latin is the uni- 
versal language of the plant world. I might 
ask a German florist for a ^ swamp-pink ’ and 
he wouldn’t know what I meant ; but if I 
told him I wanted a Rhododendron Nudiflo- 
rum, he would instantly supply me if he 
could.” 

^^Whew! Beg pardon, but gardening is 


94 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


going to a higher sort of school than I have 
been to, after all, though 1 thought I'd 
stopped studying. Well, I’ll try;” and 
Nancy began very carefully to make her en- 
tries in the little book. Upon its pages the 
common phlox became Phlox Drummondii ; 
the sweet pea, a Lathyrus Odoratus ; and 
another homely, familiar seed aspired to the 
polysyllabic title of Convolvulus Purpureus, 
though she knew all the time it was nothing 
in the world but a morning-glory ! But it 
was fun after all ; and her handwriting was 
so legible and neat that Miss Lucretia forgot 
the potato mishap, in her present pleasure. 

Nancy’s face had regained its ordinary 
brightness, and her talk of her home and its 
affairs interested her employer, so that to both 
the time^ passed swiftly ; and before they had 
noticed it, the clouds had dispersed and the 
sunshine come out. 

Now, I hear Jane putting the dinner on 
the table, and you must have your hour 
of ^nooning.’ After that I think you’ll be 


A MEMORABLE MORNING 


95 


able to weed the bed of Convallaria Majalis, 
as I mentioned,” said Miss Lucretia, with a 
teasing smile, feeling herself younger than 
she had for a long time. 

Nancy hazarded a guess : The lily-of-the- 
valley bed ! Isn’t it ? ” 

Yes. That’s its full-dress name. But in 
ordinary we’ll keep to the dear old common 
one. And now — Why, Jane ! What’s 
happened ? You look troubled,” cried the 
lady, as the housekeeper entered, not to an- 
nounce dinner but what appeared to be some 
great calamity, and which, from the way Jane 
looked at her and her alone, Nancy felt con- 
cerned herself. 

What — what have I done now, Mrs. 
Smith ? ” faltered the girl, while the disturbed 
woman wrung her hands and deplored : 

It never rains but it pours, and, as if we 
hadn’t enough to bear as ’twas, we’ve gone 
and hopped out of the frying-pan into the fire ! 
Oh ! my sake ! ” 

Then I should think the rain that ‘ pours ’ 


96 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


might put out the ^ fire ’ that burns/’ returned 
Nancy, who could not help laughing. 

Laugh, can you? Well, you may, but 
’twill be out the other side your mouth when 
you hear all.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 

Nancy forbore to laugh from either side 
her mouth at this, for Jane's anxiety was 
very real, but she could not quite repress 
a smile as the frightened woman extended 
toward herself a pair of tongs with a folded 
sheet of paper between their ends. 

There ! Take that and read it. I’ve 
smoked it with matches, and I hope it hasn’t 
fetched nothin’ catchin’ with it, but like as 
not. Fourteen days before a body could tell 
a thing, whether no, and all that time a-wor- 
ryin’. Read it out, child, and don’t scare 
Miss ’Cretia into an ampersand.” 

Not knowing what an ampersand ” was, 
and doubting if Jane did, the girl rather gin- 
gerly took the proffered note, after which the 

housekeeper immediately walked to the win- 
97 


98 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


dow, and dropped the tongs to the ground 
beneath, remarking : 

I’ve always heard that mud was purify in’, 
and there’s mud enough to-day, in all con- 
science.” Nor was her perturbation so great 
that she did not glance reprovingly at Nancy’s 
rubber boots, which she still wore because she 
had nothing lighter to supply their place. 

But the reproof fell pointless, for the child 
was gazing at the paper in her hand, unable 
to believe what was written there. Then she 
looked at Jane and demanded, rather than 
asked : 

Who brought this ? ” 

A boy. ’Bout as big as you be, or a little 
bigger.” 

Where is he, please ? Quick, quick ! ” 

He’s outside, by the wood-house. Didn’t 
s’pose I’d let him come trackin’ in, did 
you?” 

Jane, I’m afraid your neatness is greater 
than your hospitality. Tell me, do you know 
what’s in that note to startle Nancy so?” 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


99 


said Miss Halpine, as the little girl rushed 
from the room. 

Should think I did know. The boy 
handed it in to me, and I read it. Course. 
’Twasn’t in no envelope, and I thought likely 
’twas some monkey-shine or other. I knew 
we couldn’t have a passel of boys bangin’ 
round here, even if you did force us to put up 
with one girl. But it was a dark hour for 
us, Lucretia Halpine, when you was deluded 
into writin’ for the paper. Don’t you never 
do it again, honey, don’t you. Even if we go 
without a garden the whole summer.” 

^^Jane, stop wandering from the subject, 
and tell me, at once, what has happened.” 

Could easier tell what hasn’t. Don’t 
seem possible, but the boy declares up and 
down it’s true.” 

What is true, Jane Smith ? ” cried her 
mistress, quite losing her patience. 

That a whole family should come down 
with the measles to once. That a boy with 
a broken leg should be took off to the hospi- 


L.ofC. 


100 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


tal, not knowin* whether he'd live or die if he 
took 'em. And the baby swallowin' a nickel 
or a big marble right in the midst ; and the 
woman next door to 'em havin' her own 
grandchild cornin' to visit this very day, so 
she can’t take her in; and we left with her 
on our hands, and every soul of us exposed to 
it, and — Dear me, suz ! ” 

Exhausted by her own excitement, Jane 
sat down and fanned herself with her apron, 
while her mistress hastily left the room to 
learn, if possible, the simple facts of the case. 
They proved to be these : Two of the Bates 
children had been ill all night, and a doctor 
had been called to them just after Nancy had 
so quietly left home, fondly believing that 
she was the only one of the household then 
awake. The disease had instantly been pro- 
nounced measles, and of a malignant form 
then prevalent in the town. To prevent his 
taking” this sickness, Frank had already 
been sent to the hospital. The house was 
quarantined, and though Mrs. Wakeman had 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


101 


consented that some of Nancy’s clothing 
should be sent to her home, if such were 
properly fumigated, she could not receive the 
girl herself, as her own house was to be filled 
with guests that very day. At Mr. Bates’s 
dictation, across the fence, she had -written 
this news ; and he also wished if Miss Hal- 
pine knew of any house near her own where 
Nancy could be boarded, for the time being, 
she w^ould kindly suggest it. It would be 
wiser for the lady to send his daughter away 
at once, so as not to worry more than needful 
over the danger of contagion, and he was, 
respectfully, etc., Wilson Bates.” 

It was Jimmy Lincoln who had brought the 
message, and, when Miss Lucretia appeared 
on the scene, he was harrowing Nancy’s sad 
heart with all the details he could recall of 
the few deaths which had occurred during the 
epidemic, and lustily encouraging her to be- 
lieve that she would herself be stricken at the 
earliest possible moment. 

Wild-eyed and pallid, Nancy listened to him 


102 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


for awhile, but when he ended by declaring, 
You’ll come down with it yourself by bed- 
time, see if you don’t,” she lost her temper, 
and sprang from the wood-house floor, where 
she had thrown herself prone, exclaiming : 

I’ll do no such thing ! I never was a 
catcher, and I never will be, so there. As 
for my darling little brothers, they will all 
get well, every single one of them. The 
more you say they won’t, the more I don’t 
believe you. It was good of you to come 
’way out here with the note, but that’s the 
only good thing there is about it. And now 
— you’d better go home.” 

^‘And where will you go. Miss Hoity- 
Toity ? When you begin to get all shivery 
and scorchin’ hot, and sore-throaty, and sick- 
stummicky, what then ? Maybe then — 
maybe — Hmm, I know somethin’.” 

Humph! I should never have dreamed 
it ! ” snapped poor Nancy, her heart aching 
with anxiety, determined with all her might 
that she would not be ill herself, yet 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


103 


wondering what was to become of her, well 
or ill. 

But by this time Jimmy’s real manliness 
and affection got the better of his pleasure in 
teasing, and he ignored her sarcasm, reiterat- 
ing that : 

I do know somethin’, Nancy Bates, and 
you’d better listen to it. You may come to 
our house and stay till they get well or die, 
either one.” 

Nancy faced around upon him, touched and 
surprised. 

Who says I may, Jimmy Lincoln ? ” 

No answer forthcoming, she repeated her 
question, and now twisting one foot nerv- 
ously around the other, he replied, shame- 
facedly : 

I do.” 

You do ? Without your father or mother 
saying so ? You dare ? ” 

At this he tossed his head and answered, 
valiantly : 

Yes, I do dare. Ain’t I the only one to 


104 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


our house ? Haven’t I had ’em and got 
well ? Isn’t my mother the nicest, biggest- 
hearted mother in Norwich ? And my father 
— whatever my mother says goes with him. 
They’d be only too glad to do your folks a 
good turn, and I know it. How many flower- 
frames has your father made for Ma ? How 
many nights did he sit up with Pa when he 
had the fever ? Haven’t I heard Ma say, 
more’n once, that if ever there was a Chris- 
tian woman it was your step-mother, and how 
lots of real mothers could take a lesson by 
the way she’s brought Frank and you up? 
Oh ! I ain’t talkin’ in the dark, I ain’t.” 

To the impulsive Nancy her relief could 
only be expressed by hugging Jimmy’s neck : 
but his own sentiment having now become 
exhausted, he resented this exhibition of hers, 
and roughly tossed her arms aside, crying : 

There, you needn’t do that. I hate to be 
sissied over. You can take it or leave it. 
There it is, and I’ve no more to say ; ” and 
the little fellow pushed his hat backward. 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


105 


thrust his hands into his pockets, and began 
to pace the narrow place, whistling indiffer- 
ently. One reason of this assumed noncha- 
lance was his discovery of Miss Halpine, who 
had been an amused, but unobserved, witness 
of the scene between the children. Nancy, 
also, now saw the lady, and, running to her, 
clasped her hands, entreating: 

Won’t you please tell me what to do ? and 
I’ll do it.” 

Child, I wish I knew ! ” 

Already, in great perplexity. Miss Lucretia 
was pondering over what was the wisest 
course to follow. Her impulse was to keep 
Nancy safe at Cedarcroft and risk the conse- 
quences of her being “ took down,” as Jimmy 
prophesied ; on the other hand was her own 
inexperience as a nurse and Jane’s vehement 
opposition to this plan. The old servant’s 
fear of contagion was great, and she asserted, 
positively, that if any of us old ones took it, 
we’d die sure, for it’s only the young gets 
over things easy.” Then, too, should it be 


106 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


needed, the difficulty of getting other help in 
house seemed to a person of Miss Halpine’s 
fixed and quiet habits almost insurmount- 
able. Yet, how could she turn the helpless 
child adrift ? 

Suddenly and eagerly Nancy asked, as if 
she had found a solution of their trouble : 

Oh ! Miss Halpine, what is that teeny 
tiny stone house down where the garden ends 
by the creek ? Where the pretty stone bridge 
is.” 

The lady started slightly, yet answered 
readily enough : 

That was the negroes’ quarters when, 
many, many years ago, there were slaves 
even up here in our northern New York 
State. The building has been long unused, 
but my — We never tore it down, for it’s 
interesting as an historical landmark. It is 
said that a British officer once hid there, to 
escape our soldiers, but that he was dis- 
covered and — I haven’t been inside the 
place since, I mean for a great while.” 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


lOT 


Jimmy’s hand now flew up, snapping its 
fingers, as he thus claimed attention: 

Teacher, — that is. Miss Halpine, — I 
know ! I know ’bout that ! My father told 
me. Th’ officer was caught and killed right 
there, in that very house. They say he’s a 
ghost now, and he comes there and yells of 
nights, sometimes, when the wind is right. 
I’ve heard lots of folks say so, true’s I live. 
That’s the ^Haunted Cabin,’ Nancy Bates, 
and you’d ought to be ashamed to lived right 
here in this town and never known it.” 

Well, I didn’t, then, and I’m not ashamed. 
Though you ought to be for believing such 
stories. My father says it’s only ignorant 
people who do. And, anyway, how -could 
a ghost ^yell,’ when his throat and mouth 
and the whole yelling part of him would be 
dust of the ground ? Pooh ! ” 

“ But I tell you my father — ” 

A controversy as to the veracity of their 
respective parents seemed imminent ; and for 
some reason, known only to herself, the mis- 


108 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


tress of Cedarcroft always disliked any talk 
about the ancient stone cabin/' so she 
changed the subject, and in a spirit of mis- 
chief she had developed since her little 
assistant " came into her life, she suggested : 

Gardener, suppose you go to your weed- 
ing of the Convallaria Majalis, as we planned, 
if your friend can wait for his answer till I 
can consider this matter more fully.” 

Jimmy’s astonishment at these formidable 
terms delighted his playmate, and with a 
flash of her own brown eyes, she responded : 

Yes, indeed, I will ; and, as you told me. 
I’ll look in that far corner to see if the Fritil- 
laria Imperialis has started to grow.” 

Her employer was also delighted that 
Nancy was so apt and quick, and returned to 
the house feeling that affairs would arrange 
themselves, in some satisfactory way if she 
only gave her mind to the matter. Indeed, 
despite its seeming impossibility, that ques- 
tion about the empty cabin would return to 
her again and again ; and when Jane entered 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


109 


the sitting-room, inquiring: ^^Well, Miss 
’Cretia, what you going to do with her?’’ 
she almost amazed herself by answering : 

Maybe I’ll put her in the ^ Haunted 
Cabin.’ ” 

Lucretia Hal pine ! Be you crazy ? ” 

I hope not. But I feel as if I should be 
if I were hard-hearted enough to turn that 
little girl away from Cedarcroft, now that 
misfortune has come to her.” 

For goodness sake ! And you haven’t 
known her only two days ! ” 

But I love her as if I had known her all 
her short life. She’s so bright and affection- 
ate, I don’t see how even you could dislike 
her, if — ” 

“Land, honey, I haven’t said I do. I 
wasn’t taken with the notion of her hangin’ 
round, doin’ more destruction than good, 
a-clutterin’ up everything, when we’d ought 
to have a strong, able-bodied man, if we have 
anybody, to work the place. But — ” 

“ But, you good Jane ! Ah ! I see in your 


110 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


eye that you pity her now as much as I do. 
It needed but to touch your heart, and your 
wise old head throws caution to the winds. 
Sit down, please, and let your work wait, 
while we settle this thing one way or 
other. The child is here — thrown upon our 
hands ; what shall we do with her ? ” 

Despite all her sharpness of tongue, Jane’s 
nature was kindly and faithful. She under- 
stood, without being told, that her mistress 
hated to part with the little girl, to whom she 
had taken such a fancy, and really wished to 
gratify her; still, she would never consent 
to risk the child’s staying under the same 
roof, eating in the same room with them- 
selves, until all danger of infection was over. 
Dropping her chin in her hand, she reflected 
in silence, then remarked : 

Nobody ever saw the ghost. Of course, 
it’s there. Everybody knows that, though it 
don’t come round much, ’cept in the winter, 
and most of all in March. ’Twas of a wild 
March night it happened, so I’ve heard ; 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


111 


and ’twas of another wild March night 
Master — ’’ 

“ Jane ! Jane ! almost shrieked Miss Lu- 
cretia. 

“ There, there, honey. I forgot. Forgive 
the old woman that loves you, and wouldn’t 
hurt you for all the money in the world. 
But if the child don’t know about it, and 
^ know nothing fear nothing ’ is the saying — 
It’s a snug, good little house. As well built 
as this, and this old stone mansion will out- 
last all the new gimcracky ones them new 
folks is building on the ^ Heights.’ Time was 
when Cedarcroft was such a show place that 
people came from far and near to see it. 
Ours was the first windmill in Norwich, save 
that terrible old one they used for fiourin’ ; 
and we was the first had water piped in our 
buildings. Your father was the first man in 
these parts ever owned a horse mowin’-ma- 
chine, and as for reapin’, the farmers round 
said he’d meet a judgment doin’ things by 
horses that had always been done by men. 


112 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


And I Tow it did use to be a pretty sight, 
a line of haymakers mowing side by side. 
The sweep of their scythes, so even, just like 
the music your mother played on the harp, 
and them singin’ in tune — many’s the time 
I’ve stood at the buttery window and watched 
’em, Solomon leading the whole lot, and him 
and me keepin’ company, reg’lar — ” 

Jane, Jane ! come back out of that happy 
past into the present. When you and I begin 
our reminiscences, we forget to stop. All our 
lives we’ve lived together, old friend, and 
I know you’ll help me to decide now what’s 
best, just as you always have. We were 
talking about the ^ cabin.’ ” 

If she wasn’t afraid to stay there, not 
knowin’ — ” 

It’s just the thing ! She does know, that 
Jimmy boy told her, and she isn’t afraid. 
These little people of to-day are much 
better taught than we were when we were 
small.” 

“ Maybe. Hmm. She’s made friends with 


HOW IT WAS DECIDED 


113 


Rover, already, and she could have him. He 
wouldn’t let nobody come anigh.” 

The very thing ! ” again cried Miss Hal- 
pine. 

Rover was the misfit name of a venerable 
St. Bernard dog, so old and fat that he never 
roved anywhere save between his kennel and 
the kitchen stoop, and so cross that it was 
surprising he had permitted Nancy to touch 
him. 

Well, if you will have it so, ITl fix the 
things. ITl get them children to help me. 
ITl put her victuals in the wood-house, and she 
can get ’em there. When I have a job to 
get through with, I want to get through with 
it, but, remember. Miss ’Cretia, that whatever 
comes of it, you’re to blame. And now I must 
go stand over burnin’ sulphur smoke and 
get my clothes full of it, so’s I sha’n’t catch 
the measles.” 

Thus speedily it was settled that Nancy 
should set up an independent housekeeping 
within a haunted cabin ; ” and nightfall 


114 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


found her standing on its threshold, watching 
Jimmy’s departure townward, assuring her- 
self that: 

I’m not one bit afraid. Not a single bit. 
Stay close to me, good Rover, nice Rover ! 
Yes, you can go to sleep, if you want to, for 
I’m not a bit afraid. It’s only so — so — 
sort of spooky, it makes me all goose- 
fleshy. There, Nancy Bates ! You go to bed 
and stop thinkin’ of ghosts. It’s nobody but 
Jimmy Lincoln’s old ghost, anyway ; so 
there.” 

And with that she crept between the covers 
of the cot Jane had prepared, and fell asleep 
almost as soon as her head touched the pillow, 
to wake, a few hours later, in the midst of a 
horrible racket that made her heart almost 
stop beating from fear. 


CHAPTER VII. 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 

Composing this fearful din there seemed to 
be the angry growling of the dog, the shrieks 
of some human creature in pain or terror, the 
rumbling of heavy thunder, and worst of 
all, the wild, weird meanings that came from 
the roof — could it be from the ghost ? 

For the first few seconds, this thought was 
uppermost in Nancy’s mind ; then a flash of 
lightning showed her whence issued those 
.human shrieks, and sent her to the rescue, 
regardless of all else. A boy was hanging on 
the sill of the small rear window, whose sash 
opened sidewise and inwardly, one leg outside 
in the rain, the other firmly clutched by the 
few remaining teeth of the vigilant Rover. 

Who are you ? What you doing here ? 

There, Rover, good Rover, let go. He’s 
116 


116 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


all right, Rover, Rover, Rover ! Down, sir, 
down.’’ 

But the St. Bernard was faithful to his 
trust. He had been bidden by Jane to 
watch well,” and he was wholly obedient. 
No intruder should enter the premises he was 
set to guard, not while his strength held out ; 
but when a second flash showed this intruder 
to be none other than Jimmy Lincoln, Nancy 
matched her own strength against his, and by 
gripping Rover’s throat choked him from his 
hold. 

There was more of Jimmy within than 
without the wall, and, as soon as he felt his 
leg free, he lost his balance and fell to the 
floor. Here, again. Rover was with difficulty 
prevented from seizing the lad, but hearing 
Nancy speak in a natural tone to the visitor, 
the animal barked once or twice, and returned 
to his own disturbed slumber. 

^^Well, Jimmy Lincoln, what you doing 
here, this time of night ? ” 

Say, he bit me. He’s bit me all to pieces. 



“ ‘ he’s all right, rover, rover, rover ! DOWN, SIR, 

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IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


117 


Oh ! Ouch ! True’s you live, he’s tore my 
leg all to scraps. Oh ! oh ! oh ! ” 

^^Hush. You mustn’t scream so. You’ll 
wake my dear Miss ’Cretia up, and 
she’ll think it’s I, and that I’m scared 
and — ” 

Well, you are, aren’t you ? ” 

No. I’m not. Not now. I was, course, 
when you screeched.” 

Sho ! I guess you’d screech, too, if a 
great hundred-and-sixty-pounder had hold of 
your leg with all his teeth. Jane says he 
weighs that, and he measures ’most seven 
feet from tip to tip, ’cause Solomon measured 
with her tape measure and — ” 

All his teeth aren’t enough to pick a 
bone with. He hasn’t but four left.” 

Well, he’s got jaws, then, and I tell 
you I’m bit.” 

^^Oh! I hope not. Wait. I’ll light the 
lantern Jane gave me, ‘ case of accident,’ she 
said. If this isn’t an accident I don’t know 
what it is. Why did you come here, eh ? I 


118 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


wish you’d stayed at home, waking me up 
this way.” 

As soon as the light was produced Jimmy 
uttered another shriek, but this time a 
jubilant one, as he pointed to Nancy’s clothes 
and derided her thus : 

Thought you wasn’t afraid ! Thought 
you didn’t believe in ^ any old ghost ’ ! Hi ! 
And you did, after all ! ” 

I didn’t either : what makes you say 
that ? ” contradicted Nancy, stoutly. 

’Cause if you hadn’t been, a fussy-clean 
girl like you’d never gone to bed with- 
out undressing. You’ve got on every 
one your clothes, shoes and apron and 
all.” 

Well — well — supposing I have. They’re 
mine, aren’t they ? I was — I was dreadful 
— tired — last night, and — I wish you’d go 
home, Jimmy Lincoln. I’ve got to get up 
and go to work in the morning, and I’m 
the boy Miss Halpine hired, not you. Why 
did you come, anyhow ? ” 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


119 


— to take care of you,” faltered the 

lad. 

Fudge ! ” 

Well, to — to see ^it,’ then, if you want 
to know.” 

Have you seen ^ it,' Captain Courageous ? ” 

Not yet. Say — have you ? ” demanded 
the young protector,” sinking his voice to 
an awesome whisper, and fairly jumping as, 
at the word it,” Rover turned uneasily and 
growled again. 

You can't see what there isn't. I'm 
going to put the light out, and you’d better 
go. Through the door this time, and not by 
the window. My ! How it does rain and 
thunder ! And it was only just a teeny bit 
cloudy when I went to bed.” 

At this Jimmy groaned dismally and 
begged : 

Don't ! Not till we look and see how 
he’s hurt me. I don’t know as I can go 
home. I don't see how I could walk a step." 

Running’s faster than walking," replied 


120 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Nancy, unmoved. There, look quick, be- 
fore I waste any more of this candle. Isn’t 
it a funny, old-fashioned lantern ? Ours 
at home has a kerosene-lamp in it.” 

Bother your old lantern ! J ust look 
a-there, will you ? ” ^ , 

With real anxiety Nancy bent above the 
terrible wounds she now expected to see, 
but a moment’s scrutiny satisfied her that 
none such existed, and she exclaimed, con- 
temptuously : 

Well, of all boys, to make a fuss over 
nothing ! He hasn’t bitten you at all. How 
could he ? with only four poor old teeth, 
and them so loose that Jane expects he’ll 
^shed’ ’em any day.” 

Sho ! It’s worse ’an that. It’s a good 
deal worse ’an that. Legs’ll get well them- 
selves, but clothes won’t. Look at my stock- 
ings. Look at my knickers. What’ll Ma 
say?” 

‘^I don’t know. I wouldn’t like to be in 
your shoes when she finds out. You may 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


121 


be the ^only/ and she may be the ^biggest- 
hearted/ but I reckon she’ll inquire how 
that happened.” 

You needn’t pile it on that way. Say, 
Nancy.” 

^^Well, ^say’ what? Quick, for you’ve 
got to go home.” 

What time do you s’pose it is ? ” 

Long past time for you to clear out.” 

‘‘ Say. I always liked you first-rate, didn’t 
I ? ’Most as much as if you’d been a boy. 
’Most as much as I do Frank?” cajoled 
Jimmy. 

I never heard of it if you did,” returned 
the girl. 

I always have. True’s you live. Say.” 

Oh ! you silly thing ! You deserve a 
^ Limerick,’ and here it is : 

There once was a boy who said * Say ! ^ 

So much that his tongue ran away ; 

And even at night, 

So sad was his plight, 

Kept clacking as if it were day. 


122 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


But say your ^say/ quick, and have done 
with it.” 

Well, then, you haven’t — I don’t suppose 
— hmm. Say, Nancy, have you got a needle 
and thread here ? ” 

No. How could I have ? Why ? ” 

Maybe we — you — could sew stitches 
in ’em, and then Ma wouldn’t know.” 

Wouldn’t she, my truthful James’? 
You may cheat yourself, but you can’t cheat 
mothers. They know everything. Aren’t 
you ever going home ? ” 

As she asked this question, the wind, which 
had lulled for a time, sprang up again and 
the storm burst forth afresh. With this 
return of the gale returned, also, those mys- 
terious moans and wailings overhead, which 
startled even the really courageous Nancy 
into a shivering fit, and sent her would-be- 
gallant knight of chivalry ” prone on the 
floor, where he lay breathless with terror, till 
the gust passed and the meanings ceased. 
With the silence, Nancy’s spirit rallied, and 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


123 


shaking Jimmy vigorously by the shoulder, 
she ordered him : 

Now, Jimmy Lincoln, you go straight 
home as you can go. A pretty ^ protector ’ 
you are, leaving me to face the spook all 
alone while you hide your eyes like that. It’s 
nothing but something can be explained. My 
father says all such things can be, and — Oh ! 
I’ve got a notion ! Wouldn’t I be proud if 
it happened that I, just Nancy Bates, hunted 
this spook to its lair ? Wouldn’t those folks 
you say believe in it feel ashamed ? You too ? 
Well, then, I will. I certainly will. Now, 
before it wails again, you march.” Then, as 
he remained motionless, that is, made no 
effort to start, she was inspired to ask : 

Why don’t you go, boy ? ” 

^^Say, Nancy. I’ll tell you something. 
Won’t you never tell, long’s you live ? ” 

I may and I mayn’t. Depends. I hate 
to promise anything, for the minute I do I 
begin to want to break it. Father says that’s 
human nature, and I don’t believe there ever 


124 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


was a girl so chock full of human nature as I 
am.” 

I’ve a good mind to anyway. You’re 
square, gen’ally.” 

Nancy’s curiosity was getting the better of 
her discretion, and now that there was com- 
fortable silence around them, she grew eager 
to hear any bit of news was going. So she 
added, encouragingly : 

I won’t if I can help it. I’ll try not. 
And if I feel as if I must. I’ll try not to 
try — Oh, dear ! I’m so sleepy, and I wish 
you would go home ! ” 

I don’t think you’re very polite. If I had 
a little house all to myself, and you came 
a-visiting me, I wouldn’t send you home, I 
wouldn’t. Not if it was raining blazes and 
you was afraid every step of the way, and 
things seemed jumping out of every bush 
you went by, and there wasn’t a house be- 
twixt here and a quarter of a mile, and that 
one old Joe Foster’s, who gets drunk and comes 
home any time a-hollerin’ and goin’ on — ” 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


125 


Oho, Jimmy ! You needn’t say any 
more. That lets your secret out, plain 
enough. You needn’t think I’ll tell it. I’d 
be ashamed to say one of my friends was 
brave enough to run away in the night, after 
his folks were asleep, and too big a coward to 
go home again. A fellow that felt it safe 
to go to see a ghost in a house where there 
was a girl to take care of him ! And ^ say,’ 
Jimmy; I always liked you first-rate, didn’t 
I ? Well, I did. So much that I hope you’ll 
sometime be braver than you are now. So 
much that I hope your mother hasn’t waked 
up and found her son lost and been broken- 
hearted about it. So much I hope you’ll save 
your credit by starting this minute while 
it’s stopped raining ‘ blazes,’ or drops either ; 
and if you will I’ll go half-way back with 
you, even far beyond old Joe’s. Come 
along.” 

Say, Nancy, what’s the harm of my stay- 
ing here till mornin’ ? ” 

All the harm in the world. Miss Halpine 


126 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


wouldn’t like it. We’d be sure to oversleep 
and — Come on.” 

But James had now plucked up the rem- 
nant of his courage, and dragged himself to 
the door, where he paused for a final say,” 
and this relating to the spook he had hoped, 
yet feared, to meet. 

Say, Nancy. If ^ it ’ should come, after 
I’ve gone — ” 

I’ll send ^ it ’ in pursuit ! Only I thought 
I’d got to see you home.” 

Well, you haven’t. Who’s afraid, any- 
way?” returned the boy, whose pride was 
roused. 

^^Well, James Lincoln, I guess — both of 
us ! But that doesn’t matter. Step lively, now, 
and I must go to sleep, or I shall never, never 
wake up again. Good night.” 

With that Nancy gently but firmly assisted 
her ill-timed visitor over the threshold, and 
before the echoes of his running footsteps had 
died she was fast asleep. 

Fortunately, old Rover answered the pur- 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


127 


pose of an alarm-clock, and it was his 
restless moving about the little room which 
awoke her betimes ; but her head ached, and 
she felt so stiff, from sleeping in her clothes 
and from her weeding in the rain of the 
day before, that, at first, her thought was : 

Oh ! I’m sick ! I’ve ^ taken ’ the measles, 
spite of all ! ” Her second : My throat isn’t 
sore, and I’m as hungry as Rover seems to be. 
Yes, you dear old fellow ! You shall go out- 
of-doors. It’s a beautiful morning, and I 
ought to do a lot of gardening to-day. If 
only Miss Halpine could get that man she’s 
needing to do her ploughing and spading. 
She asked Jimmy to ask his father to send 
somebody, if he knew anybody. Mr. Lincoln 
is quite a gardener himself, even if 
he does live in the town, and I hope he 
can.” 

Then she went down the bank of the creek 
which ran beside the cabin and filled the 
ewer that Jane had provided ; and decided 
that, since she had no fresh clothing to put 


128 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


on, she would take off what she wore, shake 
it out well, and dress again. 

^^That will make it feel fresher, anyway, 
and I suppose somebody will bring me other 
things to-day. Oh ! how dreadful it is ! To 
be right here in the same town where my 
brothers are so sick, yet not let to go home. 
Seems as if I couldn’t bear it. I wish, I wish 
I had never read that old advertisement, nor 
come here ! No, not quite that, because then 
I shouldn’t have known Miss Halpine. But 
of what use is it ? When I think of all the 
new expense poor father’s got to meet, sick- 
ness^ and doctor visits, and Frank back at 
the hospital, and big board to pay — what 
will become of us ? Old Mrs. Wakeman talks 
poorhousey herself, though she’s not poor, 
really, and I’ve laughed at her. But — I 
don’t feef like laughing now. Yet, there, 
Nancy Bates ! Stop thinking of things you 
can’t help. Father says ^ do the duty that 
comes first,’ and now I’m dressed, that is 
to read what Jane wrote down for me to 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


129 


do and not to do. She takes care of Miss 
'Cretia same as if she were a little girl, and 
orders her as much. Hmm. I mustn’t set 
foot inside the house, ’less I’m asked, till a 
fortnight’s passed. I will find my victuals — 
sounds as if I was a beggar ! — in the wood- 
house. I may eat them there if it is cold or 
stormy, but if it isn’t, I better do it outdoors, 
and must ^ rench ’ my dishes in the creek 
before I set ’em back where I found them. 
I will have my breakfast at seven o’clock 
sharp, my dinner at twelve, and my supper 
at six. When I’m obliged to ask Miss ’Cretia 
for orders I must yell at her from a distaij^e, 
and not go anigh. I must keep the things 
I use tidy and — Dear, dear, dear ! This 
world’s just made of musts and mustn’ts ! 
But it’s a cute little house to keep, all the 
same, and I do wonder if Jimmy home 
all right. He was the ’fraidest boy — and I 
was. But I sha’n’t be again. I slept here, 
alone, and nothing happened. Nothing but 
Jimmy, of course, and no real ghost, if there 


130 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


was one, could scare me much worse than 
he did when I saw him hanging in that 
window with Hover grabbing him. There, 
I begin to feel better already. I shut up 
my cabin too tight, and it smells dreadful 
doggy. To-night Rover must sleep in that 
other room, and I’ll leave the top half of that 
queer old-fashioned door open.” 

Jane had brushed and cleaned the empty 
cabin very throughly, and had brought to it 
the few articles actually needed : a cot, a 
wash-stand with its furnishings, and one chair. 
She had, also, at her mistress’s desire, spread 
a rug on the cement floor before the cot, 
and had showed Nancy where were hooks to 
hang her clothing upon if any came to her. 
The cabin stood at the foot of the six-acre 
lawn, which the little girl called garden,” 
and the brook babbled by it like a real play- 
mate. On its banks there were dog-tooth 
violets — which Nancy was to be informed 
were really named Erythronium Americanum ; 
masses of bloodroot blooms, which seemed 


IN THE HAUNTED CABIN 


131 


more like snow-banks than Sanguinaria 
Canadensis ; and the dear little pinkish-laven- 
der liverwort flowers, which tried to hold up 
their heads under the weight of Hepatica 
Triloba. 

Though she had lived so little among them, 
Nancy loved flowers, and now began to feel 
about them as Miss Lucretia did, saying : 

They seem almost like real folks. I do 
believe the beautiful things are asking me to 
take them to that other beautiful creature, 
my Lady of the Garden. Oh, you dears ! I 
must kiss you ! You are so crisp and sweet 
and clean. You have had your rain-bath and 
put on fresh-starched dresses, all ready to, go 
up to the big house and say ^ Good morning.’ 
I wish I could send some of you to my own 
little home and my darling brothers, 
but—” 

Winking fast, lest she might do something 
worse, the little girl gathered a big bunch of 
the wild flowers, and sped swiftly over the 
lawn, determined to see only the brightness 


132 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


and beauty of her surroundings and to for- 
get, if she could, the troubles she could not 
prevent. 

Jane was just coming out of the kitchen 
with a tray of breakfast, and Nancy ran to 
her, clasped her close, and gave the astonished 
matron a hug and kiss before she could ob- 
ject. Then the nosegay was held under the 
woman’s nostrils and she was asked : 

^^Did you ever see anything so pretty as 
that ? I’m going to take it to Miss Halpine, 
to put on her own breakfast-table.” 

Then the tray was set upon the path with 
a force that jingled the dishes, and holding 
her head held far back, to avoid contact with 
the flowers, Jane grasped them with her apron 
and flung them away, indignantly demanding : 

Would you kiU her ? ” 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE HAPPENINGS OF A MORNING 

Poor Nancy recoiled as from a blow. She 
was often thoughtless and needing reproof, 
but it had never been given her in a tone like 
that, which conveyed an unbearable sense 
of degradation. Her temper flamed, and with 
equal indignation, she demanded : 

Am I a leper ? You act as if I were. 
You — I hate you ! Pm going home this min- 
ute. I wish — I wish — Oh, you poor little 
innocent flowers ! Since I’ve ^ poisoned ’ you 
already you may as well go with me and 
make somebody glad ; and why, why did I 
ever come here ? ” 

Jane was as much surprised by this out- 
burst as Nancy had been by the treatment 
accorded her lovely nosegay ; but a fresh 

surprise was in store for both. Unseen by 
133 


134 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


either, Miss Hal pine had been behind the 
arbor vitae hedge, stooping to see if the for- 
get-me-nots planted in its shadow had started 
growth, and her head now appeared above 
the cedar as she inquired : 

Jane, Nancy, are you quarrelling ? and 
on such a morning as this ? Jane, your 
caution is absurd. Nancy, you’ve forgotten 
the respect due an older person. Bring me 
the flowers, my dear, for they shouldn’t lie 
in disgrace, the innocent victims of human 
tempers.” 

Miss ’Cretia ! ” remonstrated the old serv- 
ant, moving forward as if she would interfere. 

But Nancy had already picked up her nose- 
gay, and with a defiant glance toward the 
housekeeper, now handed it to her employer. 

I gathered them for you, because they 
made me think of you. They are so pure 
and dainty, but — but — do you suppose — 
if it’s true, and there is any danger, please 
throw them away and wash your hands quick. 
I’m sorry I spoke saucily to Jane — I mean, 


THE HAPPENINGS OP A MORNING 135 


I begin to be sorry and I shall be quite, 
when I get cooled down. But it’s horrid to 
feel as if you were a walking pest-house, like 
the smallpox hospital — ” 

What’s that ? Smallpox ? ” exclaimed 
the old servant, who had bent to lift her tray 
and had caught but thus much of what the 
girl had said. Who’s got the smallpox ?” 

Nobody. Nor even the measles. Do re- 
call your wandering common sense, good Jane, 
and take that tray to the porch. Put it on 
my little table there, and fetch Nancy a chair 
to sit in,” said Miss Halpine. 

There mustn’t nobody else sit in it, 
then.” 

Nonsense. There, child, have patience. 
Why, I hardly know my bright-faced gar- 
dener this morning. You look as if — did 
you sleep well, last night?” now asked the 
mistress, with remorseful thoughts of how 
easily she had yielded to Nancy’s assurance 
that she wasn’t at all afraid to stay alone in 
such a cosy house.” 


136 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Not very,” answered the child, after a 
slight hesitation. 

What disturbed you, my dear ? 

I’d rather not tell, if you don’t mind,” 
was the second reluctant reply, for Nancy 
would not betray Jimmy’s escapade. 

This grew so interesting that Jane paused 
midway to the porch and listened intently, 
regardless of the heavy tray with its cooling 
food. But the little girl was not so regard- 
less. That was a very different sort of break- 
fast from her accustomed ones, and hunger 
banished the last of her anger, so she in- 
quired, with a return of her usual smile : 

Is that for me ? ’Cause it looks so deli- 
cious I can hardly wait to eat it. My head- 
ache’s all gone and I want to go to work. 
What am I to do to-day. Miss Hal pine ? ” 

I haven’t quite decided. There’s so much 
I hardly know what’s best. Though you’re 
right : breakfast, for all of us, is first. I hope 
you’ll enjoy it. I’m going in to mine now.” 

Jane’s curiosity got the better of her caution. 


THE HAPPENINGS OF A MORNING 137 


and as her mistress disappeared within the 
house, she lingered by the little stoop-table 
and asked, beneath her breath : 

Child, did anything come to the cabin 
last night ? ” 

Please don’t ask me. You ought not.” 

Then there did ! I knew it. I knew 
where there was so much smoke there’d be 
some fire! Let Miss ’Cretia pooh-pooh it 
much as she will.” 

W-h-a-t ? ” gasped Nancy. There wasn’t 
a bit of fire, or smoke either, that I saw.” 

Jane continued, more as if talking to herself 
than to the little girl : 

It was just the sort of night it always 
comes. The wilder, the surer. Well, I’m 
glad you’re safe, and — I don’t know what’s 
to be done now. I’m none too pleased to 
have you here, I must admit, but I’m no 
heathen to make you stay in the ^ Haunted 
Cabin’ again. I don’t know how you lived 
through it, you poor little creatur’.” 

^^Jane, you get over your tempers ’most 


138 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


as quick as I do, don’t you ? There. I s’pose 
that’s saucy again ; and you’d better go give 
our — our mistress — her breakfast.” 

Nancy had promptly discovered that Jane’s 
spirit resented that name of mistress,” on 
anybody’s lips save her own, and enjoyed 
this slight retaliation for offences received. 
Yet the old servant took no notice of the 
term, and hastily departed, intending to cross- 
question Nancy at the earliest opportunity. 
And with much satisfaction she announced to 
Solomon, as she joined him at the kitchen 
table : 

I always knew it ! Time and again I’ve 
heard it with my own ears ! ” 

Well, most folks do hear things with 
their own and not other folkses’,” he assented. 
^^Give me some more coffee. I feel a sight 
better this morning. I believe I could plough 
if I tried.” 

You’re not goin’ to try, then. The milk- 
man’s goin’ to send a man. You’d plough an 
hour and grunt all the time, then lie abed a 


THE HAPPENINGS OP A MORNING 139 


week. If you’re better, you’d best keep so, 
to look after things. Hmm. I don't helieve 
there s another property in the county got one 
hut ours ! ” 

“ Quit starin’ at nothin’, woman, and give 
me my coffee. Seen that young one this 
morning ? ” 

Should think I have. And she’s eatin’ 
on the porch, all measly as she is. But she’s 
seen ^ it ! ’ And she’s as holler-eyed as a phan- 
tom, and what’s to be done, I don’t know.” 

Solomon was more interested than he would 
admit, but considered it wiser to frown upon 
the superstition of his wife, and returned : 

Fudge. I do. Them dandelions want 
pullin’ all out the lawn. It’s yaller with ’em, 
and rootin’ out the grass like lightning.” 

Yes, there was lightning, and terrible 
thunder,” mused Jane. 

Cleared the air and makes me feel good. 
She could do that and not hurt nothin’, 
seems if.” 

But that poor little creatur’, all alone.” 


140 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


^^Look a-here, Jane Smith. If you don’t 
watch out, you’ll get to likin’ that young one 
’fore you know it. I’m tempted that way, 
even myself. Two three times she picked up 
some the things I dropped, yesterday, and I 
never in all my life seen such a white set of 
teeth in anybody’s head, and her eyes — they 
kind of snap like all the time, like they was 
about ready to say somethin’ worth while.” 

Jane rose to clear the table and remarked : 

“ I never heard eyes talk, not I myself. 
And how ’bout ^ early roses ’ ? All the red- 
heads in creation can’t make them good 
again.” 

“ No, Jane, that’s so. ’Twouldn’t do. She’s 
a blunderin’ young one, and once we get 
her started here, she’ll grow right along. I 
mean — Fudge. I can’t think of nothin’ but 
that neglected garden. But, Jane, you tell Miss 
’Cretia ’at I’ve got a job for Nancy, and I’ll 
instruct her how to do it myself. I’d like to 
see her right now, and I’ll hobble out to the 
wood-house, where I can in peace and quiet. 






THE HAPPENINGS OF A MORNING 141 


A man can’t talk sensible where a woman is 
clatterin’ her dishes all the time.” 

Well, I’m thankful you can go. I always 
did despise to have men-folks clutterin’ up 
the house,” returned his helpmate, with a 
laugh at her own smartness of repartee. A 
laugh in which he joined, despite his will, 
for they were a devoted old pair, whose affec- 
tion for one another was as sincere as oddly 
expressed. 

Nancy followed the gardener to the wood- 
house, wishing him a gay good morning, and 
noticing that he seemed far less afraid of her 
infecting him with the measles than his wife 
did. Indeed, as he sat on the great chopping- 
block, he looked cautiously around, fearing 
interruption, and, instead of telling Nancy 
what to do, dropped his voice to a whisper, 
as he asked : 

Say, Sissy, what was it you saw last 
night ? ” 

Nancy started guiltily, wondering if by 
any possibility he could have been out-of- 


142 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


doors and a witness of Jimmy’s coming or 
going. It was not likely, however, for he 
would have been afraid of the storm’s mak- 
ing him more lame ; and nobody could see 
well so far from the big house, unless by 
aid of the lightning’s flash. But she asked, 
quietly : 

What makes you think I saw anything ? ” 

Jane. She says so. You must ha’ told 
her.” 

‘‘1 told nothing. And she’d no business 
listening to the talk between Miss Halpine 
and me.” 

Solomon ignored this, and persisted : 

Needn’t be afraid to trust me. Sissy. I 
can keep a secret well’s the next one, and 
havin’ lived my life here, if there is a — a 
ghost, I sh’d deem I was entitled to know all 
the facts of the case if anybody was.” 

Nancy’s eyes twinkled and her smile was 
certainly bright as he continued, after a brief 
pause : 

If you’ll tell me the whole business, true 


THE HAPPENINGS OF A MORNING 143 


and exact, not addin’ ner subtractin’ a ioty, 
I’ll give you — I’ll give you a nickel.” 

Mr. Solomon, I couldn’t ! ” 

A dime, then. Though ’tain’t worth it.” 

Pooh ! I fancy it, the it I saw, would 
claim he was worth a deal more than that ! ” 
and she laughed so merrily that the old man 
grew offended and exclaimed, testily : 

Well, keep your old ghost, then, if you 
want to ; for if you cal’late on squeezin’ a 
quarter out of me, you’ll be disappointed.” 
The spirit of mischief made her deepen the 
mystery.” Mr. Solomon, I’m above brib- 
ery ! He might exhibit himself for cash, one 
never can tell what a spook will do, but I 
can’t betray him. Besides, it’s getting late 
and I must go to work. What is it, please, 
and how am I to do it ? ” 

At that moment Jane’s sunbonneted head 
appeared above the quince bush beside the 
door, and Solomon answered, in a very loud 
tone : 

You take this garden-line and stake off a 


144 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


strip of the grass, so ; then you begin to one 
end of the strip, and with this little peelin’ 
knife you dig out every old dandelion root 
you see. Them that are in blossom you can 
fling into one basket, for the compost-heap. 
Them that ain’t, put into another one, and 
Jane’ll cook ’em for greens. The bitter of 
dandelion is hulsome, in the spring of the 
year.” 

The old roots, you said. How can I tell 
the difference ? ” 

Do you mean to be sassy. Sissy, or do you 
not ? It sounds mighty like — there, there. 
Don’t say nothin’ more. Female tongues from 
their youth up are troublesome things. Jane, 
you’ve come just in time to take down them 
two baskets hangin’ yonder. Now, girl, be 
off about your work, and don’t you make no 
blunders this time.” 

Two negatives make an affirmative,” mur- 
mured Nancy, recalling her grammar lessons, 
and smiling, as she ran away, to think haw 
disgusted Solomon would be, could he know 


THE HAPPENINGS OF A MORNING 145 


who her ghostly ” visitant had been. Jane 
had put a small piece of carpet in one of the 
baskets for her to kneel upon as she dug her 
roots, that her frock might not be greened, 
and for the first hour of her labor Nancy was 
very happy. The morning was still cool, she 
was able to forget home troubles in the nov- 
elty about her, and she sang as she worked. 
The second hour was not so pleasant. The 
air grew very warm, and the sun beat down 
on the wide unshaded lawn as if trying to 
scorch her. The dandelions seemed innumer- 
able and her task monotonous. Thoughts of 
her sick brothers obtruded themselves, and a 
terrible homesickness assailed her. 

Miss Halpine had not been visible since 
breakfast, and by the end of the third hour 
it seemed to the banished daughter that she 
would lose her courage, entirely, if she 
couldn’t have a glimpse of her father’s face ; 
and when she reached the stake she had 
planted by the stone bank-wall, border- 
ing the road, and which finished an 


146 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


imaginary ^^row/’ she could not restrain her 
grief. 

Throwing herself down in the shade of a 
spruce-tree, whose great branches swept the 
ground, she cried as if her heart were 
broken ; but while she lay thus, sobbing 
bitterly, there came to her a sound which 
some people would have pronounced ^^ear- 
splitting.’’ This was the shrill signal com- 
mon to lads upon the street, made with 
fingers and lips, and Nancy instantly recog- 
nized it as Jimmy Lincoln’s whistle. 

The next instant her red head was lifted 
from the grass and she was eagerly waving 
her hand to the boy who came staggering 
up the road, under a bundle he was carrjdng 
pick-a-pack ; and which he tossed upon the 
wall, with a sigh of relief. 

Hello, Nan ! What’s up ? ” 

Oh ! I’m so glad you’ve come, you dar- 
ling boy ! ” 

Shucks ! I wasn’t so ^ darling ’ last night, 
was I ? ” 


THE HAPPENINGS OF A MORNING 147 


Tell me, Jimmy, quick, quick ! How are 
my brothers ? ’’ 

didn’t see ’em.” 

course you didn’t, I didn’t expect 
they’d let you. But you must have heard. Are 
those my clothes ? Didn’t Mrs. Wakeman send 
me any message?” demanded the anxious 
girl, catching Jimmy’s sleeve. What makes 
you so slow?” 

Didn’t, didn’t, didn’t — if you want an- 
swers you better give me time to breathe, 
betwixt. It’s no fun being an old go-between. 
My father says I’m an ^ immune ’ — a fellow 
’at’s had ’em and can’t catch ’em again — 
and that’s why he makes me come with your 
duds. He said ^ duty,’ and that’s the meanest 
word in the whole dictionary. I hate duty. 
Don’t you?” 

‘^I don’t hate you, Jimmy, if you’re a 
^ duty,’ ’cause I see you have brought 
me no bad news, even if you haven’t 
good. Please tell me how everybody is. 
Quick.” 


148 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


What were you a-cryin' for ? ” now in- 
quired the exasperating boy. 

‘^Just for that. Because I could get no 
word from home and was so homesick. 
Please tell.’' 

W-h-e-w ! Just for that? Well, here 
goes : They stummick-pumped the baby and 
got the nickel out of him, so he’s all right, 
only f re tty as blazes. The B-C-twins are : ^ I 
said to Hiram I said, them twins, Bertram 
and Claudy, have got ’em the worst they can 
be got, but they’re so tough they’ll get well. 
Adrian’s the sickest one, I said, but Donny’ll 
have ’em light. Now, Jimmy, you tell it as 
I say, and don’t mix ’em. I told Hiram, I 
said. I’ll vouch that Lincoln boy’ll say ’twas 
the worstest one was the wellest and vicy- 
versey. And he said: Let him. He never 
was right bright, and he’s a spoiled only 
child.’ So, there’s your message, word for 
word, exactly as I got it from her own lips, 
and unmixed. Then she gave me the bundle 
and said she’d find some way of sending you 


THE HAPPENINGS OF A MORNING 149 


word every day. And you’re to be a real 
good girl and not cut no capers, and — a lot 
more such rubbish. Of course, I’m to be 
the ^ way ’ she’ll find of sending ‘ word,’ but 
it’s no fun, I tell you.” 

^^You have already told me, disagreeable 
boy. But I don’t care, now. I don’t care 
for anything ; and, oh ! Jimmy ! ” 

Oh ! what ? I thought I was a ^ darling,’ 
a minute ago.” 

Listen ! It’s the funniest thing. I looked 
as if I hadn’t slept well last night, and each 
one of our family has asked me about it, 
privately. Each one — I know it — believes 
I saw a ‘ghost,’ a real one. Neither one 
would admit to the other that this was true, 
but it is. Even Miss Halpine asked me, with 
a queer look on her face, as if she dreaded 
my answer, and dared not urge me when I 
told her I was disturbed — ” 

“ Nancy Bates ! If you told on me. I’ll 
throw your old clothes in that ditch yonder ! ” 
“ Look here, Jimmy Lincoln. Am I that 


150 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


kind of a girl? Would you have liked me 
^ first-rate/ ^ ’most as much as if I were a boy/ 
if I had been ? You ought to be ashamed 
of yourself. Of course I didn’t tell. Then 
Jane cross-questioned me, and got no satisfac- 
tion, but believes in the spook more than 
ever. But the funniest was Solomon. He’s 
better, so took me out into the wood-house to 
tell me what to do, but really to ask me 
what I saw last night. He went so far as 
to offer cash payment. But I was above 
bribery : though I tell you, and if you want 
to make a few cents out of the scrape — 
tackle Solomon, and maybe you can.” 

“ Hurray ! I’ll make him blood-curdle 
worse ’an any the stories my father won’t 
let me read make me. How much do you 
think I could get out of him ? A quarter ? 
fifty cents ? a dollar ? ” 

Before Nancy could reply there was a sound 
of a warning cough on the farther side the 
spruce-tree, and with another of her Jack-in 
the-box-like appearances, the mistress of Cedar- 


THE HAPPENINGS OP A MORNING 151 


croft stood before them. Her expression was 
full of quiet amusement, yet she made no 
comment on what she must have overheard, 
and bade Jimmy a kindly good morning. 
Then she asked : 

Can you drive a horse, James ? A very 
gentle, safe old horse ? 

Huh ! Should think I could. I can drive 
the fastest racer goin’, I can. I’ve been 
raised on horses, every kind. My father, 
he keeps the liberty stable — I mean livery 
— used to say that when I was a kid — I — 
Why, Miss Halpine ? ” 

Because I may hire you to do some 
errands for me. Solomon isn’t able, though 
he’ll superintend the harnessing. And Nancy, 
I think there can be no harm in your going 
to see the brother who’s in hospital. Should 
■you like that ? Though you would have to 
ask the superintendent before you did see 
him, of course, and might be refused per- 
mission. You may take him a bunch of the 
wild flowers, and I’ll cut a basket of hyacinths 


152 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


and tulips for the other patients. It is my 
habit to send flowers there twice a week, and 
while you’re here you may be my ^ agent ’ in 
the business. Indeed, I think you would like 
to help cut and pack them, as well as your 
own bouquet. Let us attend to it at once, 
while James is helping Solomon.” 

Saying this, the lady turned to cross the 
lawn, over that part of it which Nancy had 
weeded ; but she had not gone a dozen feet 
before she stopped short, threw up her hands 
in dismay, and cried out : 

Oh ! oh ! oh ! Nancy, how could you ! 
And you a country-bred — or, at least — oh ! 
dear ! ” 


CHAPTER IX. 


A WOODLAND VISIT 

The glow died from Nancy’s face and in 
answering dismay she cried : 

What harm have I done now ? ” 

My violets ! ” 

The girl caught her breath, as she glanced 
toward the basket of weeds destined for the 
compost-heap, then she explained : 

Solomon told me to dig up everything, 
everything except the grass. He was very 
particular. He asked me over twice if I knew 
just what grass was, as if he thought I was an 
utter stupid. I knew those were violet leaves, 
like we find in the woods and sometimes along 
the roadsides. But they’re not the sweet 
ones, such as are in that bed you showed me. 
But, Miss Halpine, I’d better go away. I’m 
always doing wrong without meaning it, and 

153 


154 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


■ — V ^ 

if I stay on ITl likely ruin everything you 
have.” 

For a few moments the disappointed lady 
felt like taking the girl at her word. It did 
seem that all she touched was doomed to 
death, and she had undone in a few hours 
the labor of years. Then justice prevailed, 
and a glance at the small face that had been 
so gay and was now so sad touched her own 
warm heart. Also, she reflected that there 
might have been, probably had been, a pur- 
pose in Solomon’s instructions, which his 
pupil had too literally obeyed. 

No, Nancy. Not yet. Try and try again, 
you know.” 

^‘ Were you so fond of them. Miss Hal- 
pine?” 

Yes. I’ve been transpla<nting them from 
the woods or roadsides, from wherever I 
could get them, because I love the blue carpet 
of them. It looks like that, or has looked so 
from my windows, at their time of blooming, 
a little later than now. But Solomon has 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


155 


not liked them. He says they root out the 
grass, which he has been even more years in 
trying to grow to such perfection. There isn’t 
a lawn anywhere about with such fine, moss- 
like grass as ours ; and I suspect that he’s 
more to blame than you. He has evened ofi 
that artichoke affair, and will, doubtless, be 
as pleased as I am sorry. There, child, 
think no more about it. It can’t be helped.” 

« Why can’t it. Miss Halpine ? These are 
not much withered, and if I carefully set them 
back again, why shouldn’t they grow ? ” 

“ You are already tired, I see, and it would 
be a long, warm task.” 

Please let me try. Please, please. In- 
deed, I can’t bear to be such a destroyer of 
everything you prize. Let Jimmy go to the 
town without me. He’ll be a safe messenger, 
for he is used to horses, as he says. He’s a 
good boy — ’most always.” 

Very well,” assented Miss Lucre tia, 
thinking it well that Nancy should have some 
lesson to teach her carefulness, and meaning 


156 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


to give her a greater pleasure later in the day. 
So Jimmy drove alone through the great stone 
gateway, and was back so soon that Solomon 
accused him of having left some of his errands 
undone. The boy convinced him to the con- 
trary, and rejoined Nancy on the lawn, to 
explain that he hadn’t waited to bother 
with seein’ Frank, though he’d left them 
flowers all right. But, say, Nancy.” 

Well, say what ? ” 

If I was to stay and help you, so you’d 
get done twice as soon, you’d get double 
money, don’t you see ? ” 

^^No, I don’t.” 

Course you would. If you had a whole 
day’s dandelionin’ to do, and you got through 
in half a day, you’d get two days’ pay, 
wouldn’t you ? And could give me part ? ” 

I don’t see how. Something’s wrong with 
your arithmetic. I’m no good at figures, 
myself, or not much, but that sounds queer, 
some way. Why, of course not. I’m not 
doing this job by the dandelion — or violet, 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


157 


ah, me ! — but by the day. And I guess 
you’d better go now. Did Miss Halpine pay 
you off ?” 

No, not yet. She said I was to wait a 
minute in the kitchen till — Pshaw I She’s 
a-wavin’ to me now. Well, anyway. I’ll stay 
and help you a few minutes. I’d like to get 
a job here. I’d like it first-rate, now school’s 
shut up. It was a boy she advertised for, 
anyway, and not a girl.” 

This remark restored Nancy’s drooping 
spirit by rousing her indignation, and she 
exclaimed : 

“Of all the mean things, Jimmy Lincoln, 
that’s the meanest ! To try and take another 
boy’s place away from him — ” 

“ I’m not ! I ain’t ! I never ! ” protested 
Jimmy, flushing. “ I only said both of us. 
Say-’’ 

But Nancy paid no further heed to him, 
though she fell upon the task of resetting the 
violet roots with a vigor which soon finished 
it. Then it was dinner-time, and it was a very 


158 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


hungry girl who sat down to the stoop-table 
and a bowl of Jane’s good vegetable soup. 
But she had first made a visit to the brook- 
side and plentifidly dashed the water over her 
heated face and thoroughly washed her soiled 
hands. The rebellious red curls were also 
brushed, with her own little brush that had 
been sent from home, and her clothing neatly 
hung in the cabin. 

All this was observed by Miss Halpine, and 
again Nancy rose in the lady’s favor, who 
reflected : 

She surely is the tidest, sunniest child I 
ever saw. Her homely face is growing posi- 
tively beautiful in my sight, she is so honest 
and willing. Her blunders — well, Solomon 
and I, must come to an understanding on that 
subject. Conflicting orders will make havoc 
of all my treasures. I wonder if that James 
will come back again, as he promised. If 
he does, Nancy shall have at least one happy 
afternoon, to compensate for her morning’s 
tears. So he was the ^ ghost,’ it seems, from 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


159 


what I overheard, but why he should have 
come here at night I fail to understand, nor 
will I question either of them about it. 
Apparently, no harm was done, and I suppose 
children are ^ prankish,’ as Jane avers.” 

Jimmy did return, and ahead of the hour 
set by his new employer. 

He had announced at home that he had 
been engaged by the mistress of Cedarcroft, 
to do her teamin’,” and had swaggered 
absurdly, after the manner of his kind when 
suddenly elevated to a position of trust. But 
he had not been forbidden, because Mr. Lincoln 
knew, as the boy had himself boasted, that he 
was a capable little horseman, who certainly 
could manage a sedate animal like Dandy, 
the Cedarcroft sorrel. 

So, when Nancy was about to resume her 
seemingly endless task on the great lawn. 
Miss Lucretia explained : 

You need not dig any more dandelion 
roots to-day, my child. But put on your 
rubber boots and get a trowel from the tool- 


160 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


house. A basket, too, though I shall take 
my big tin box, and we may not need it. We 
are going to the woods, Nancy, and I always 
feel so delightfully excited over my first visit 
to them of the season. They’re just in con- 
dition, after the rain, for transplanting the 
ferns I need to replenish the big fernery in 
the shady corner under the weeping birches. 
It may be too early for them to have started, 
though I hope not, and I’m most anxious 
about one sort, the only ‘ specimen I ever 
found, and belonging to the only genus native 
to our country : a Lygodium Palmatum, or 
climbing fern. Then I hope to get a few 
roots of Asplenium Rhizophyllum. That is 
a plant which is called x walking ’ because it 
bends its fronds over backward till they touch 
the ground and strike new roots. And we 
must bring home great quantities of Adiantum 
Pedatum, and — Eh ? What is it, James ? ” 
The boy had come up to the steps and 
stood listening respectfully while the lady 
was speaking, but he was evidently in great 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


161 


excitement, and as Nancy afterward informed 
him, fairly goggle-eyed at the big words 
Miss Halpine used so easily.’' 

He — he — Well ! Huh ! He says that 
Dandy ain’t fit to drive, and I say it is. The 
hind shoe’s a little loose, but if he wasn’t so 
cranky and’d let me have a hammer and a 
few horseshoe nails, I’d tighten it lickity-cut. 
Huh ! ’Taint the first old horseshoe I’ve 
set. No, sir. Why, say, if you’ll believe it, 
sir, once I regular shod a horse, all four 
shoes. True’s I live I did. My father, he 
was in a hurry, and the smith, he couldn’t 
leave off another, and say, I up with his hoof 
just this way, and on she went slick as a 
whistle. Stayed on the whole time that 
horse was out, they did. And he — ain’t he 
a queer old stick ? Pooh 1 ” 

James, you must not speak so about an 
old man. He’s very careful, both of Dandy 
and of me. I’ll go to the stable with you 
and see him.” 

Poor Miss Lucretia was the most disap- 


162 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


pointed of the three. She kept but two ani- 
mals on the place, old Dandy and the still 
older Rover, and it seemed to her that she 
never needed either of these but that there 
was something wrong with them. She had 
anticipated a great deal of pleasure on this 
proposed outing, for now she would not feel 
that Solomon, who had heretofore driven for 
her, was getting tired and fretful waiting for 
her to finish her woodland visit. Besides, she 
wanted to give Nancy a happy afternoon, and 
it was with more than ordinary decision that 
she informed her old gardener : 

We are certainly going to ride, and if the 
horse has lost his shoe he will have to do 
without it. Please help James to harness.'' 

Solomon stared and obeyed, saying nothing, 
even to Jane, who appeared on the scene, ob- 
jecting in her own turn : ' 

‘‘ Well, Miss 'Cretia, honey, I hope you'll 
bring a safe neck home with you. I surely 
never expected to see the day you'd trust 
yourself in the hands of a tacker like that. 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


163 


The pair of 'em together haven’t sense enough 
to — well, well ! Have you got on your 
rubber boots? Would you like a bite of 
lunch ? If folks are set to go into danger, 
reckless so, they’d better do it on a full 
stummick.” 

Miss Halpine laughed, and was about to de- 
cline the luncheon, but just in time caught a 
glimpse of Jimmy’s eyes and accepted. She 
remembered reading somewhere that boys 
were always hungry; and food would help 
to keep the lad patient, holding the horse, 
while she and Nancy explored the forest. 

So it was settled, and the mistress of 
Cedarcroft had not for long felt either so 
happy or so young as she did when they 
drove away eastward, in the light wagon, and 
Dandy stepping out as if he recognized a 
new and determined hand upon the reins. 
It seemed to her that she had almost begun 
a new life, in which the childish laughter of 
her small helpers ” was opening a world of 
innocent delights. And, indeed, a joyous 


164 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


time it proved for all the party. Riding in 
any sort of a vehicle was the rarest of experi- 
ences for Nancy, and though Jimmy scoffed 
at Dandy’s gait, with the superiority of one 
who owned a liberty ” stable full of faster 
animals, he managed to keep that venerable 
steed jogging at a rate which surprised even 
itself. 

When they reached the forest. Miss Halpine 
directed the lad where to stand, on a grassy 
level widening of the mountain roadside, gave 
him all but two of the sandwiches, and bade 
him : 

Wait exactly here, on this very spot, un- 
til we come back. Do not go anywhere else. 
You’ll find a book under the cushion of the 
front seat, so that if you’re tired you can read. 
Don’t be afraid ; and you are^ perfectly safe.” 

James grinned at the mention of fear, and 
exchanged a mischievous glance with Nancy, 
who shook her head, but laughed aloud, too 
happy now to be silent. And oh, what an 
afternoon there followed ! To be in the great 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


165 


forest, miles from any house, on the very top 
of the highest hill there was in that locality, 
breathing the exhilarating air, with one to 
whom every foot of the ground was rich with 
interest, was joy beyond words. And more 
and more, as they penetrated the wilderness, 
it grew upon the lady, also, that she had 
chosen well in this keen, responsive child, 
whose love of nature was as great as her 
own. 

Naturally, two such wood-lovers tarried 
long ere they thought of leaving the fascina- 
ting place. Miss Halpine’s great tin box was 
full and pressed down, with the specimens 
she had secured ; most precious of all, a tiny 
root which she was sure was the rare Lygo- 
dium; and Nancy had. filled her own basket 
to the brim with anything and everything 
which caught her fancy. 

But suddenly it occurred to them both 
that it was growing very dark. 

Do you suppose it is going to rain again, 
so soon ? ’’ asked the girl, anxious that her 


166 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


beloved patron should be exposed to nothing 
hurtful. 

Miss Halpine looked toward the west and 
laughed : 

^^This is nightfall, not cloud. Why, we 
must have stayed long beyond our time. See, 
how fast it darkens. Now that I’ve stopped 
searching the ground and looked away from 
it for a few moments, it has already become 
almost impossible to distinguish the different 
plants. We are far in the wood and must 
make haste out. Poor James ! I fear he will 
be disgusted with driving for me.” 

They were, indeed, far deeper in the forest 
than they had thought. The way back to 
the road seemed long and difficult, since they 
had no longer the excitement of plant-hunting, 
and their burdens were heavy. Nancy had 
long ago, at Miss Lucretia’s insistence, eaten 
the two sandwiches, and yet now felt hungry, 
while the other, who had eaten nothing, began 
to grow faint and dizzy. 

Never mind. Miss Halpine. We’ll soon 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


167 


be there. Are you sure we’re going 
right ? ” 

^^Yes, we’re on a trail I know, though I 
never followed it so far inward before. A 
wood-cutters’ road, though disused for years, 
and much overgrown now. But I’ve been 
coming to this forest all my life. I came first 
with my — We are safe enough; though I 
shall be thankful when we get back and can 
rest in the wagon. It will be too late to set 
out any of our specimens to-night, but they’ll 
keep safely in the damp old dairy till morn- 
ing.” 

A few rods farther they came to an abrupt 
halt, and Nancy, seeing as yet but the amusing 
side of the affair, burst into a little chant : 

Two fern-hunters, lost in a wood, 

Said one to the other : ^How good 
It would be to see 
That butternut-tree, 

’Neath which Jim and Dandy once stood.’ ” 

^^But, Nancy, Nancy ! We are not, cannot 
be lost,” remonstrated Miss Halpine, with a 


168 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


nervous laugh and a sharp note of anxiety in 
her voice. 

^^No, indeed, not lost. But I don’t re- 
member that boggy place, do you. Miss 
Lucretia? It seems to spread all the way 
across, and the trees are not so thick. This 
side looks the best. I’m littler. I’ll go first. 
When I find a place I don’t slump in you 
come. When I do slump, you don’t. Adrian’s 
rubber boots are so big I may lose them, but 
— here goes ! ” ^ 

She thrust out her foot, tentatively, and 
fulfilled her own prophecy — the boot stayed 
in the mud, while her foot came out of it. 
This meant delay, and they retreated to the 
safer, higher ground, as soon as the girl had 
recovered and replaced the boot. Then Miss 
Lucretia suddenly discovered their mistake 
and cried out : 

^^See, child! We’ve been going north in- 
stead of south. Just exactly in the wrong 
direction, though by the same road.” 

How can you tell ? ” 


A WOODLAND VISIT 


169 


‘‘ By the trunks of the trees, which are 
mossy on the north side, and lean toward the 
south. I know my way now, and weTI soon 
be at the road.” 

Thus Nancy had acquired another item of 
woodcraft, and pleased her instructor by say- 
ing, as they faced about : 

“ I like Nature’s school the best in the 
world, and you are the dearest teacher, Miss 
Lucre tia.” 

Thank you, and T hope we will both 
always be loving pupils of that school. Ah ! 
There’s a familiar landmark, that tells me we 
are about ten minutes’ distance still from our 
carriage ; but that doesn’t matter, since the 
danger of having to stay all night in the 
forest is past.” 

Then even you were afraid of that ? I 
was, I know.” 

Yes, for a little while. But look yonder. 
I think I see the worm fence that borders 
the road.” 

They were soon out of the wood and upon 


170 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


this road, at a point but little above that 
where Jimmy was to await them, and hurried 
downward to that very butternut-tree which 
Nancy had versified, and where should have 
been the promised Drayton.” There was no 
mistake as to the spot, for there was the box 
in which Jane had packed their sandwiches; 
there lay in the ditch the copy of Thaddeus 
of Warsaw ” that Miss Halpine had provided 
for Jimmy’s reading; there were the wheel 
and hoof prints; there were many signs of 
Jimmy’s presence; yet, alas! Jimmy, horse, 
or vehicle, there was not ! 


CHAPTER X. 


THE APPARITION 

Mr. Lincoln was just closing his office for 
the night when a small girl rushed into it, 
caught his hand, clung to it a moment for 
support, then sank down upon the floor, where 
she gasped, rather than spoke : 

“A — carriage — quick — quick ! ’’ 

The gentleman turned up the light and 
exclaimed : 

Why, it's little Nancy Bates ! You poor 
child, what has happened ? " 

Her face, at first frightfully flushed, now 
began to grow as alarmingly pale, though she 
tried to smile into the kind face above 
her and eagerly accepted the glass of 
water he hurried to offer. Then, though 
her breathing was still labored, she ex- 
plained : 


171 


172 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Please get a — carriage for — Miss Hal- 
pine. Quick, quick ! ’’ 

Certainly. At once. What sort ? ” 

Any — any kind that she can ride in.'' 

^Wery well. There, sit still. Don't try 
to explain till you are rested. See. . I'll set 
this pitcher of water beside you, but don't 
drink too freely of it. I'll get up a rig in- 
stantly, for all the men have left for the 
night. By the time I'm ready you'll be all 
right." 

Nancy laid her head against the chair be- 
side which she had dropped, and slowly 
recovered herself. She was still wild with 
impatience, yet felt that she had accomplished 
her task, and that all would be well even if 
this deadly faintness should not pass. If she 
could keep her senses long enough to direct 
Mr. Lincoln, her beloved Miss Lucretia would 
be cared for, and the rest didn’t matter. 

However, she was a perfectly healthy child, 
and soon felt more like her ordinary self, so 
that at the end of the very few minutes which 


THE APPARITION 


173 


were required for the livery keeper’s harness- 
ing, she could explain her errand, though she 
still trembled from the great exertion she had 
made. 

Miss Halpine’s left on the top of Lookout 
Mountain. Jimmy didn’t wait, and she’s faint, 
and you must go quick. To take her home.” 

Jump in. Tell me as we go. Here, put 
this light lap-robe around you, and I’d best 
throw two or three more into the trap. We’re 
off ; and what’s that about Jimmy ? ” 

Nancy then told the predicament in which 
her employer and herself had been left, not 
attempting any further explanation of the 
boy’s peculiar behavior. Her anxiety was 
only and wholly that they should get to Miss 
Lucretia, before she takes a dreadful cold or 
faints away alone.” 

Nancy, did you run all the way from the 
top of Lookout ? ” 

^^Yes. I had to. I’d have run twice as 
fast if I could.” 

Child, don’t you ever do such a thing 


174 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


again. It’s a full five miles, and you might 
have killed yourself. The strain on your 
heart — ” 

Oh ! It wasn’t hard. It’s down-hill all 
the way, you know, and — do make him go 
as fast as he can. Think ! My darling Miss 
Lucretia’s all alone up there. In the dark, 
and with, maybe, wolves and things. She 
is too tired to walk any more, we walked so 
much in the forest, looking for specimens. 
She promised to sit right still on the big rock 
we found, and she’s got ^ Thaddeus of Warsaw ’ 
to sit on. We tore him all to pieces and made 
a cushion of his leaves, so she shouldn’t take 
cold, but she’ll be terribly lonely, and maybe 
frightened sick. Solomon and Jane have 
taken such care of her, as if she were a little 
child, it’s made her tender. Oh ! they’ll be 
so worried! And what, Mr. Lincoln, what 
could make Jimmy do it?” 

The gentleman had taken his swiftest horse, 
and, though the night was dark, was driving 
as rapidly as possible over the smooth road 


THE APPARITION 


175 


of the valley and the rougher, narrower one 
of the mountain. But he now gave close 
attention to his small companion, as she clung 
to him, bumping and bouncing about on the 
leather cushion, and demanded : 

What did Jimmy do ? How is he con- 
nected with this matter ? ’’ 

Why, didn’t you know that he was 
going to drive for Miss Halpine ? ” 

Yes. But I supposed it was to be only 
around the place, or to the town. I haven’t 
seen him since this noon, but if he’s been guilty 
of mischief, such as this, he’d better look 
out.” 

If it had been for almost any other person, 
Nancy would have tried to excuse the lad’s 
behavior; but to run away and leave Miss 
Lucretia, her darling Miss Lucretia — well, 
he ought to be punished ! 

There was but one road up the mountain, 
and they travelled it in silence for the rest 
of the distance, until they came to the top and 
the memorable butternut-tree, against which, 


176 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


dimly discernible in the gloom, Miss Halpine 
was heavily leaning. Fortunately for her, 
she had passed part of her waiting time in 
sleep, though she had roused at the sound of 
wheels, and cried out in fear of being over- 
looked : 

Here am I ! Nancy, James ! Why, you 
have been, as you promised, very quick.” 

Then, standing up, she saw that this was 
not James, but a man, who said : 

Not that scapegrace, madam, but his 
mortified father. Allow me to help you in. 
Whoa, sir ! Climb over into the back of the 
wagon, little girl, while I tuck these baskets 
and things in front.” 

The return to Cedarcroft was speedily 
made, and Miss Lucretia was welcomed and 
wept over and cosset ted by the anxious pair, 
Solomon and Jane, who had been, as the 
weeping housekeeper declared : 

Scared out of a year’s growth when Dandy 
came walkin’ home alone, with his traces 
hitched up, and no wagon anywhere in sight.” 


THE APPARITION 


177 


He is home then ? ’’ asked Miss Halpine, 
weakly, too tired to care very much about 
anything save bed and rest. However, she 
was made to eat some of the nice supper, 
which had been kept waiting all this time and 
to which Nancy, at least, did ample justice. 
Then quiet fell on Cedarcroft and the mystery 
rested till the morning should bring explana- 
tion. 

This came by way of Jimmy, that day the 
saddest boy in Norwich. On Mr. Lincoln’s 
return from his trip to the mountain, he had 
tracked his son to his hiding-place in the attic, 
and of the interview between them Jimmy 
did not care to speak. Sufficient to say that 
part of the punishment meted out was a 
personal visit and apology to the lady of 
Cedarcroft, with the prohibition of touch- 
ing any horse-flesh for six months to come.” 

It was Nancy who saw him arrive, creep- 
ing sluggishly along the road, though now 
unburdened by anything save his own guilty 


conscience. 


178 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Heigho, Jimmy ! So you’re alive, are 
you ? I was afraid you were hurt. What 
happened ? ” 

Where’s the woman ? ” was the brief re- 
sponse to her greeting. 

Up at the house. Do you want to see 
her ? ” 

^^No, I don’t. But I’ve got to. No, you 
needn’t come. Stay back with your old 
dandelions, where you belong.” 

Aren’t you going into partnership with 
me? If a girl can earn fifty cents, a girl 
with a boy can earn — how much was it ? ” 
But Jimmy had passed on without pausing, 
and soon stood, a most abject little person, 
before the wide veranda where Miss Lu- 
cretia was reading, and feeling still too much 
overworn by her last night’s experience to 
plant even her choicest specimens of ferns. 
But she could only pity the unhappy lad, 
whose very knickers took a downward, de- 
jected droop, and bade him a kindly Good 
morning.” 


THE APPARITION 


179 


Morning. I — I — I — knew lie needed 
shoein’. That old Thaddeus was a noodle. 
I et up the stufE. Then I drove him to the 
blacksmith’s and some boys said football and 
I belonged to the Juniors and had to go 
course and we stayed late and I forgot and 
when I went he wasn’t and I was scared 
and knew you’d lick me or if you didn’t my 
father would or old Solomon either one and 
the hateful old horse had left his wagon 
behind him at the shop and my father he’ll 
send it home to-day right off and I wisht I’d 
never come and that’s all, so there.” 

Poor Jimmy ! In the agony of his confes- 
sion his words tripped each other up without 
stop or hindrance of any sort, the perspiration 
stood thick on his tear-stained countenance, 
while his stubby fingers nervously clutched 
and twisted the bottom of his jacket, as if 
he would wreak upon that a vengeance for 
his own distress. But, as soon as the con- 
fession was ended, he darted down the path, 
and so vanished from Cedarcroft, vowing to 


180 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


himself that never, never would he visit it 
again. 

Then followed a week of peace and indus- 
try for everybody on that lovely old place. 
Help had been secured to put the vegetable 
garden in working order, and Solomon’s 
lameness had become so slight that he could 
make ” it after his own fashion and leisure. 
In the other garden, among the flowers, 
toiled Miss Lucretia and happy Nancy : each 
day bringing fresh delight and the heathful 
fatigue which made their slumber sound. 
The milkman had now become the messenger 
from the Bates household, and while his news 
was not very encouraging, it was not greatly 
the reverse. In any case, Nancy had scant 
leisure to worry, and since the prescribed 
fortnight was not yet passed in which she 
must not enter the big house, she still occu- 
pied the cabin. Indeed, she had already 
grown to be very fond of it, and was not at all 
afraid there. On each night when there hap- 
pened to be a strong wind, there recurred 


THE APPARITION 


181 


the unexplained moans and groans, which 
came from the rafters, where the ghost 
hides,” according to Solomon's statement. 

Well, so long as it hides and doesn't harm 
me — ' let the poor thing wail, if he likes. 
But I believe my father, and he says there 
is always an explanation of such things. I'll 
find it yet, see if I don't. Two or three 
nights I've meant to stay awake and try for 
it, but I'm always so sleepy.'' 

Solomon had regarded her with disfavor, 
when she made this sensible assertion, and 
had remarked : 

Somethin' must be a-wantin' in your 
make-up. Sissy. Never saw a young one 
afore that wasn't scared into fits at the very 
idee o' ghosts; and as for sleepin' in the 
house with one, you may be too stupid to 
care, but I've been again' it from the word 
go. ‘ 'Tain't no kind of place for a growin’ 
girl,' I've said to Jane ; but what could I do ? 
She's more afraid of the measles 'an she is of 
ghosts, and I don't know but I agree with 


182 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


her. I hope it won’t hurt the property none, 
you a-laughing th’ apparition to scorn, so to 
speak. We’re the only folks in these parts 
has a ghost, anyway, and — ” 

And you’d like to keep it ! Oh, you 
funny, proud old Solomon ! Well, I shall not 
disturb it, for as I said, I cannot stay awake.” 

Yet that very night following this talk she 
was destined to prove her own words false. 
Depressing news from home had made her 
wakeful, so that, unable to sleep, she had 
wandered out in the starlight and along the 
brook, feeling utterly desolate and homesick. 
Up and down she paced, till she watched 
the last light go out in the big house across 
the lawn, and then returned to her own 
room. It was still early, for households less 
simple and regular than Cedarcroft, but 
Nancy felt she ought not to remain up after 
hours,” even if her doing so could disturb 
nobody. The faint rays of a young moon 
brightened the bare interior of the cabin and, 
as she crossed its tbresbold, there confronted 



9 


f 


“ ‘ SIR, ARE YOU 


THE GHOST 




THE APPARITION 


183 


her, sitting upon her own chair, with his head 
bowed on his hands above the table — what ? 

A motionless figure of a man clad in a 
uniform, whose buttons glittered in the moon- 
beams, and whose bowed head and all that she 
could see of his flesh were white as the apron 
she wore. 

For a moment poor Nancy paused, afraid 
to move, almost afraid to breathe, and dread- 
ing what the next instant might bring with 
it. As she stood thus, gazing in terror, the 
soldier — he was certainly such — lifted his 
head and turned a luminous glance upon her- 
self. Luminous ! His eyes were discs of fire, 
his face pallid, his hair and sweeping mus- 
tache as colorless as those of any regulation 
spook should be. 

For a brief time the pair regarded each 
other, and then Nancy’s courage slowly and 
surprisingly came back to her ; all other emo- 
tions suddenly blending in an unconquerable 
curiosity, as she whispered : 

Sir, are you — the ghost f ” 


184 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


The spectre fixed its unearthly eyes upon 
the child, yet answered in a voice that seemed 
wholly mortal and very gentle : 

Alas ! yes. A ghost ! But harmless.’’ 

Still curious, but strangely unafraid, she 
moved a bit nearer and asked again : 

Whose?” 

The ghost of a boy who grew up on this 
old place, and often slept beneath this narrow 
roof, when some mad prank had banished him 
from the broader shelter yonder.” 

How — how long ago — was that ? ” fal- 
tered Nancy, for the first time realizing that 
she was doing a daring thing, and slowly 
retreating toward the doorway. 

Long, long before you ever saw the light. 
Come back, now, for one last glimpse of the 
beloved scene.” 

Oh, then you are not a dead ghost at 
all?” 

Worse, maybe, for I am a living one. But 
who are you, little miss, and what are you 
doing out-of-doors alone at night?” 


THE APPARITION 


185 


Oh ! I’m not such a little one, and I’m 
just Nancy. This is my house to sleep in 
now.” 

Do you belong to the lady of Cedar- 
croft ? ” was the stranger’s next question ; 
and, now convinced that he was nothing but 
an ordinary man whose curiosity was as great 
as her own, Nancy sat down comfortably on 
the door-step as she answered : 

I do and I don’t. I’m the boy that’s^ 
working for her ; so, in a way, I belong. But 
I’m my father’s, of course. He is Wilson 
Bates — ” 

Wilson Bates ? The little chap who was 
my fag at school, and the j oiliest youngster 
that ever fished for minnows with a crooked 
pin. My ! How it all comes back, till it was 
only yesterday it might have been.” 

Then did you know my father ? Oh ! 
tell me, who are you, please ? No ghost 
whatever, I know that, of course. And now 
I see what made your eyes look so queer. It 
was your spectacles catching the moonlight. 


186 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Any spook might have had them, and they 
weren’t spirity at all/’ said the young hostess 
of the Haunted Cabin,” feeling very friendly 
toward one who remembered her father’s 
boyhood. 

Suddenly the visitor leaned forward and 
scrutinized the girl’s face, as the rising moon 
lighted its honest plainness. Then he asked : 

Nancy, can you keep a secret as well as 
your father used to do ? ” 

I’d be ashamed if I couldn’t. Do you 
want to tell me one ? ” 

I’m inclined to trust you. I came here 
for a brief call, but I’m moved to tarry. If I 
tell you who I am, will you help me ? Will 
you promise not to disclose my identity until 
I give you leave, if ever I do ? Will you let 
me stay in your house, as you call it, and not 
betray that I am here ? Will you pass me off 
for the ^ ghost,’ the real one, and so hide me 
from the eyes of the curious ? ” 

Nancy caught her breath at this daring 
proposal. Then she asked : 


THE APPARITION 


187 


Why, and would it be right ? IPs Miss 
Lucretia’s house, not mine, you know. And 
— oh, the measles ! You might take them.’’ 

The ghost laughed as if he were, indeed, 
very much alive, and said : 

I should say we were both Yankees, 
answering questions by asking others. This 
much I assure you : I would not ask you to 
do a wrong thing. What I have asked may 
lead to the greatest possible good, even to 
that ^ Miss Lucretia ’ who owns this cabin. If 
it fails to do that, it can certainly do nobody 
harm. Now if you’re not too sleepy, tell me 
all you know about this place, about — every- 
thing. I’m eager for news of the old town 
and its people. Then I’ll go away and leave 
you to think over my request.” 

There followed a long, earnest talk between 
the soldier and the child, mostly of questions 
on his part and replies on hers ; and at the 
end of it he rose from the wooden chair and 
loomed before her, so tall his white head 
almost touched the ceiling. 


188 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Good night, Nancy. To-morrow evening, 
at this same hour.” 

“ Good night, Mr. — Who ? ” 

Spook, my dear. Colonel Spook, of the 
Army ! ” 

He was on the point of departure, and his 
gray uniform looked as white in the moon- 
light as that of any real ghost should ; but 
Nancy was not afraid to lay her hand upon 
his arm and remind him : 

You forgot the measles ! ” 

Oh, I’ll risk the measles. Good night. 
It’s a compact, remember ! ” 

With that he gave her a military salute 
and disappeared around the corner of the 
cabin, his form as erect and his tread as firm 
as if he were marching at the head of his 
regiment. 


CHAPTER XI. 


IN THE TANGLES OF MYSTERY 

Nancy was down upon her knees beside 
the big bed of pansies, from which it was 
her daily duty to remove the seed pods that, 
if left to ripen, would prevent the further 
blooming of the plants. She loved this task 
best of all which came to her, for the flower- 
faces seemed almost as intelligent as human 
ones, and she was now singing to them : 

There once was a soldierly spook 
Who came to my house by the brook ; 

With hair snowy white 
And eyes gleaming bright, 

He frightened me so that I shook.” 

Nancy ! Nancy ! What is that you are 
telling the pansies ? ” demanded Miss Hal- 
pine, drawing near from the rose-border be- 

189 


* 


190 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


yond, where she had been cutting away the 
dead branches. 

Oh, Miss Lucretia ! I didn’t suppose you 
could hear my nonsense.” 

hear and see a deal, my dear. For 
instance, I see that though you are out- 
wardly merry you are troubled about some- 
thing. I thought all your brothers were now 
improving.” 

So they are, the milkman says, and that 
it won’t be long before I can go home. Oh, 
how happy 1 shall be ! ” 

And I for you, child. You’ve been very 
brave and patient.” 

have? Well, I didn’t know it. But, 
Miss Lucretia.” 

Say on, Nancy. I’ve soon to go in.” 

The girl stood up and, with a face that 
was now quite grave, inquired : 

‘‘ When you make a promise and it seems 
all right, and yet you keep thinking maybe it 
isp’t, and you don’t like doing things that 
you can’t tell, what then ? ” 


IN THE TANGLES OF MYSTERY 191 


^^Well, then, if I were seeking advice, I’d 
try to make my meaning a little clearer,” 
answered the lady, with a smile. 

But if you couldn’t ? ” 

^^I shouldn’t attempt things I couldn’t. 
What is it, Nancy?” 

I can’t tell you, please. But I just 
wanted to know.” 

Very well ; yet I will tell you, my child, 
that you have acted very queerly several 
times of late. Aren’t you well ? Are you 
afraid to stay in the ^ Haunted Cabin ’ after 
all ? Because, I’m sure now you are safe to 
sleep in the big house ; only you seemed so 
to love the little one.” 

I do love it. I wouldn’t leave it for any- 
thing. Please let me stay there until — for 
ever and ever so long. And I am not one 
bit afraid. How could I be with a sol — Oh, 
my ! I almost said it ! ” 

Nancy, was there any truth in that jingle 
you were singing to the pansies ? I ask you 
a second time, and seriously.” 


192 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Nancy’s face grew almost as red as her 
hair, and for one instant her brown eyes fell 
before the searching gaze of the mistress she 
loved. Then she lifted them again and 
answered, frankly : 

^^Yes, Miss Halpine. There was. But 
please don’t ask me anything more about 
it. You’ve always heard the place was 
^haunted,’ you just called the cabin that, 
and — it’s ^ haunted ’ still. But I am not 
afraid ; and maybe some time it will all 
be explained. Oh, how I hate to be 
tangled up in a mystery, and yet I thought 
I should like it. There. I’ve almost fin- 
ished this bed. What’s next, this morning, 
please ? ” 

Miss Halpine did not immediately reply. 
Her gaze rested upon the little stone house at 
the foot of the lawn, but in an absent, specu- 
lative way, as if she were thinking deeply. 
Suddenly, she asked : 

Nancy, why did you put newspapers up 
to cover all the windows ? And why do you 


IN THE TANGLES OF MYSTERY 193 


so carefully lock the door — since we rarely 
lock any doors at Cedarcroft ? ’' 

I — I didn’t put them up, and I didn’t 
lock the door,” answered the girl, fidgeting 
and flushing, yet speaking truthfully. 

It’s always closed after you come out, and 
the windows are certainly covered. If you 
wish to keep your house so shaded, you may 
take some old holland blinds from the store- 
room over the carriage-house. Jane gave 
you but few things to use, she was so afraid 
of infection, but you are welcome to supply 
any deficiencies from that old rubbish-room. 
We are to transplant the geranium cuttings 
from the glass-house. I like to get them in 
early, for the cold nights make them strong ; 
though the same cold would injure tenderer 
things. Too bad about Solomon getting lame 
again, just as he was ready to re-spade the 
ground for the smaller beds. Fortunately, 
he held out long enough to plant the coarser 
stuff, but I don’t see where we are to turn for 
further help. There seems to be no farmer 


194 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


disengaged, or willing to take so short a job. 
Ah ! my lilies. They are coming on finely. 
In late June this whole driveway from the 
house to the gate will be a glorious sight, 
such as I think nobody else can show. Lil- 
ium Candidum, the stately old beauties that 
my mother planted, and that have multiplied 
until there are thousands of bulbs in the rows. 
Never disturb your lily bulbs, Nancy.” 

No, Miss Lucretia, I never will — when I 
get them ! ” laughed the girl, showing her 
white teeth, and infinitely relieved that her 
mistress had so fully dropped the subject of 
the cabin, as well as touched by her kindness 
in offering fresh furnishings. Indeed, so full 
of this idea was she that she could hardly 
wait until her nooning,” when for an hour 
she was free to do what she liked. 

For two nights succeeding that of his first 
appearance, Colonel Spook ” had come to 
the cabin after dark, each time bringing a few 
articles, without which even a short stay 
there could not be comfortable. A hammock 


IN THE TANGLES OF MYSTERY 195 


and blanket supplied all the bed this old 
soldier required, and this was slung in the 
third room of the building, of whose exist- 
ence Nancy had not known until he showed 
it to her. It was beyond the middle one, 
which she called Rover’s bedroom,” and 
had been quite as empty as that. On the 
second visit he had brought a folding bath- 
tub ; and with his traveller’s dressing-case, 
and one camp-chair, he had declared himseK 
satisfied. 

But already Nancy had grown so fond of 
her ghost,” that she wished luxuries for him 
that she did not desire for herself, and it was 
a very busy rest-hour she took that day, act- 
ing upon her employer’s permission. But it 
was also a very curious and disturbed Solo- 
mon who watched her piling his light push- 
cart with a faded rocker, a folding table, the 
holland blinds, and various other furnishings 
which the lumber-room revealed ; and he 
finally expressed himself to J ane with a vehe- 
mence that brought that busy woman to his 


196 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


side, to see for herself these fresh doings ” 
of Nancy. 

Plague take that young one any way ! 
There she goes with that old stuffed chair 
was Master Maxwell’s, that was put out there 
the very next day after he ran away. And 
that there table, why, he drawed all his 
pictur’s on that ! My land, woman ! I 
wouldn’t have Miss ’Cretia see this perform- 
ance no sooner’n I’d cut off my hand. 
’Twould break her heart, what’s left of it. 
’Twould break it all to flinders. From first 
to last, it’s been the same way : nothin’s 
sacred to that meddlin’ boy-girl, from arti- 
chokes to dead men. She ain’t right, Nancy 
ain’t. Don’t stand to reason any little girl, 
’less she was born without natural feelings, 
’d dast to stay alone in a house with a ghost 
a-moanin’, as she does. And the worst of it, 
she not only stays, but — gets fat on it. She 
actilly does. Now, that ain’t rights is it ? ” 

’Tisn’t the ghost that’s so fattenin’, Solo- 
mon Smith ; it’s the victuals she eats. She 


IN THE TANGLES OF MYSTERY 197 


says herself she never had any like ’em to 
her pa’s house. He couldn’t afford it, course, 
and she’s a-makin’ up for lost time. But — 
Oh ! oh ! look there ! Will you look a-there ? 
That’s more’n I can stand. What’s she got 
hold of now but that very pictur’ of Gen- 
eral Washington that our poor boy used to 
have hung over his own mantel-shelf ? I’ll 
stop that performance or know why I 
can’t ! ” 

So as Nancy was starting down the path 
with her last load, Jane’s hand fell heavily 
upon her shoulder, and Jane’s stern voice 
demanded : 

How dare you do this, Nancy Bates ? I 
wouldn’t have Miss ’Cretia see you for 
a farm ! ” 

‘‘You wouldn’t? Why, it was she who 
told me I might, else, of course, I shouldn’t 
have dared. You can ask her, if you like. 
And it’s almost time to go back to work. 
Please let go of me, so I can finish.” 

Jane’s eyes seemed to pierce the child’s 


198 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


very soul, but finding therein neither fear nor 
falsehood, the woman released her hold, ex- 
claiming in an utterly subdued tone : 

^^Well, my sake! You could knock me 
down with a feather 1 ” and returned to 
her kitchen almost as limp as if that remark- 
able operation had been performed upon her. 

Quite as deeply moved, but by a far differ- 
ent emotion, Nancy’s refugee received the 
articles she had brought. He, also, sat down 
upon his camp-chair as if strength had sud- 
denly left his vigorous body, and his rich 
voice was scarcely raised above a whisper, as 
he asked : 

My little woman, how came you by these 
things ? ” 

Oh 1 Miss Lucretia told me I might take 
them. But you seem almost as surprised as 
Jane was. Never mind. It’s all right. Now 
you’ll have something nice to do all this after- 
noon, fixing up. And see, I saved my glass 
of milk for you. It seems so dreadful for you 
to have no nice drinks, while I have so plenty. 


IN THE TANGLES OF MYSTERY 199 


Don’t you worry, Miss Bates ! On my 
trip to town last night I procured a spirit- 
lamp and fixings, and now could stand a 
regular campaign ; and certainly can the short 
time I shall be able to stay here, undiscov- 
ered.” 

And aren’t you ready for me to tell yet ? 
Not yet ? When it would — ” 

Not yet, child. Maybe never. But, how 
came you to get these things ? ” 

^^Miss Halpine saw the papers at the win- 
dows, and I guess she didn’t like them. And 
I was singing about a spook and she heard 
me. Then she asked me if there was one, 
and I said yes, and that I wasn’t a bit afraid. 
And she said, since I was so much interested 
in my little house and wanted to fix it up', 
there were these things in an old lumber- 
room and I might have them. Sometimes I 
think she fancies I’m playing doll-house like, 
and sometimes — I don’t know. I do wish 
— I will be glad when the time comes. But 
I must hurry now. There’s such a lot to do. 


200 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


and nobody to do it, ’cept her and me. 
Solomon’s all ^ rheumaticky,’ and the garden, 
his part, is just standing still. None of the 
beds of fine stuff planted, nor even spaded. 
I’ll tell you what. Some night, after every- 
body’s asleep and won’t see me, I’m going 
to get that littlest spade and dig the things 
myself. Won’t my darling Miss ’Cretia be 
pleased ? She’s that particular she can’t bear 
to have any single thing go slipshoddy, not 
even old lettuce and radish beds. There ! 
How my tongue does run on ! Of itself, 
^ seems if.’ Jane says it’s hung in the middle 
and goes both ways. Good-by till supper- 
time, you dear, dear ‘ Ghost ’ ! ” 

^ In the lumber-room,’ were they ? In — 
the — lumber-room ! Ah, well ! Then, little 
Nancy, I was right and you were wrong. If 
she cared so little — the lurriber-room ! It’s 
a pity I tarried. An hour’s visit would have 
sufficed, and I should not have had my tough 
old heart softened by sight of scenes and faces 
familiar to me, but which have known me 


IN THE TANGLES OP MYSTERY 201 


not. Well, hurry away, then, you little con- 
scientious creature. And hurry back. We’ll 
have one more quiet evening here in the old 
quarters, and then I’ll be oR.” 

Off ? Off! When you’ve just spent 
money for all these things, and I’ve brought 
the rest ? Why, I thought it was to be a 
long, long time, till my folks got well and 
you let me tell and — Oh, dear ! And I was 
never in a mystery before, and though I don’t 
like it when I’m with Miss Lucretia, I do like 
it when I’m with you, and — and — ” 

Never mind the things. What I have 
bought may all be yours and welcome. That 
brother you love so well may be able to use 
them some day. As for the others, they are 
as well here as in any other ^ lumber-room ’ ! ” 
he ended, with bitterness. 

But it is possible that something of this 
bitterness ebbed from the stranger’s lonely 
heart; for, when night fell, and his accus- 
tomed hour for exercise arrived, he set out 
townward again, and came back — whistling ! 


202 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


Nancy was waiting, listening for the quick, 
firm tread, but not expecting the whistle. 
When she heard that, she sped out-of-doors 
and down the hedge-bordered road, in haste 
to meet and warn this new friend of the 
risk he ran. Seizing his hand, she shook it 
impatiently, whispering : 

Why, you mustn’t do that ! How dare 
you, unless you’re ready for — They might 
hear you ! ” 

Let them. Little Mother. Let them. 
Who cares ? I’d give a hundred dollars to see 
Solomon’s old visage, if he did. Or Jane’s, 
she of the snapping eyes, sharp tongue, and 
loving heart. Or — but no further. It’s a 
lark, my Lady of the Cabin. The whole affair 
has been a boyish lark, and to-night shall see 
another feature of the farce. But to-morrow 
— why, to-morrow, little Nancy, Willy Bates 
and I will run away from school and go 
a-fishing ! Down by the old Eddy, where the 
fish are wary and gamy, and where genera- 
tions of Norwich mothers have prophesied 


IN THE TANGLES OF MYSTERY 203 


their sons would certainly be drowned. I 
went to it last night, when all the world 
was asleep, and its depths, its coolness, 
its peacefulness were balm for ^a life’s 
fitful fever.’ There, Brown Eyes, stare no 
longer. Your whimsical Colonel of Spooks 
is neither crazy nor plotting harm to any- 
body. Now, I order you to bed; and if 
you dare to keep an eye or an ear open — 
beware ! ” 

He gave her his now familiar salute 
military, held the door open that she might 
pass into her own room, and carefully closed 
it behind her ; and she made ready for bed, 
fully intending to keep that prohibited one 
eye open and learn what his proposed lark ” 
might be. 

But the best laid plans of mice and men 
gang aft agley.’” In less than five minutes 
she was sound asleep ; and at the end of ten, 
assured of this fact, there emerged from the 
eastern door of the cabin a figure which was 
spectral indeed. It was garbed in white 


204 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


from head to foot, and it moved noiselessly 
houseward, with a directness of purpose 
which was unmistakable. What was that 
purpose ? 


CHAPTER XII. 


THE GHOST IS LAID 

That was to be an eventful night for the 
courageous little mistress of the Haunted 
Cabin.” She was roused from her dreamless 
sleep by the moaning and wailing as of human 
creatures in distress, and yet with a tone in 
these wailings that deemed not wholly human. 
On many a night she had listened to sounds 
that were similar, since she had been under 
that roof, but never to quite such as these. 
Fresh from slumber, she fancied them more 
terrible than anything which had gone before, 
and it was useless to tell herself that : 

I’ve heard them lots of times and they’ve 
never hurt me yet. I’m not afraid, I won’t 
be afraid. Oh, but I am ! I am ! I daren’t 

205 


206 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


move. I can hardly breathe. My hair feels 
queer — my arms all goose-fleshy — I — I — 
My ! there must be a terrible storm, besides. 
I wish — Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! 

A perfectly demoniacal shriek now sent the 
terrified child’s head under the covers, so that 
this fact, combined with the horrible din, pre- 
vented her hearing a sharp knock on her 
door, and the voice of her cabin-mate asking : 

Nancy, are you awake ? ” 

But when there came a brief lull in the 
hurricane that was raging without, the door 
was partly opened and the colonel spoke 
again. 

Nancy, don’t be afraid. ITl take care of 
you. But now’s our chance. Get up and 
dress and we’ll settle this ^ haunting ’ affair, 
while it’s at this pitch. Besides, it does seem 
as if the old cabin might blow over. It rocks 
like a ship in a gale, and you’d better be pre- 
pared to face what happens, with your thick- 
est things on. I’ll stay right here in Rover’s 
room with him till you’re ready. Poor old 


THE GHOST IS LAID 


207 


dog ! He’s whining as if he were an unhappy 
ghost himself.” 

Evidently, her friend was talking to reas- 
sure her, and Nancy felt most thankful that 
she was not now alone in the building. Her 
courage was not equal to this assault upon it, 
and sooner than she had ever dressed before, 
she had finished and was out in the empty 
middle room, clinging to her protector. 

Though at first she scarcely knew him. 
He had lighted the lantern, still the only 
lamp ” allowed her, and through its glass 
sides the candle-fiame flickered over his white 
attire and brought out lines of his face that 

she had never noticed. But his smile was as 

# 

bright as ever, and his voice as kindly reso- 
lute. 

We’re having a sort of cyclone, I think. 
I thought I should never get back to the 
cabin, and once I was blown flat upon the 
path. But it’s passing, and I hope the three 
people up yonder haven’t been too much 
alarmed. It’s a stanch old mansion, and has 


208 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


withstood many a storm. Hark ! Hi ! They’re 
at it, aren’t they, in full force ? Well, sirs, 
we’ll be with you. If it’s wise to ^ set a thief 
to catch a thief,’ it must be equally wise to 
set a spook to catch a spook. Eh, Nancy ? ” 

Oh, sir ! what are you going to do ? ” she 
cried, still more frightened than she had sup- 
posed she ever could be. 

Why, hello ! Is this my dauntless little 
comrade ? What I am going to do is simply 
this : I’m going to step on the table in your 
room and trust to luck it won’t break down 
with me. Then I’m going to slip that scuttle 
in the wooden ceiling, pull down a narrow 
folding ladder, which used to be there, and 
climb into the space under the rafters. 
Though it’s too low to be called a garret, it’s 
the very spot, I’ve heard, where that unhappy 
Britisher hid to meet his fate. If I can do 
anything to comfort his restless soul — Why, 
Nancy ! What ? A scream, and from you ? 
Forgive me, little girl, please. I’ve felt as 
senselessly mischievous as a boy this whole 


THE GHOST IS LAID 


209 


night. Hear me. There is no ghost. The 
Britisher was never killed here, but, I trust, 
came to a peaceful end upon a comfortable 
bed in his own country. The noises over- 
head are not so loud now, do you perceive ? 
Also, do you notice that the wind is dying 
away ? Well, two and two makes four, or 
used to when Willy and I had to study the 
arithmetic we hated. The wind and the 
spooks arrive together : therefore, the wind is 
the spook. He is the wild northwest fellow 
that turns many things topsyturvy. He has 
long ago found out some weak spot in this 
crumbling roof ; but the cedar shingles and 
the oaken rafters have resisted his efforts to 
blow them away, and have, poetically speak- 
ing, moaned in their struggles against him. 

There, miss ! That’s a long-winded, plau- 
sible explanation of our Cedarcroft ghost. Ah ! 
the ladder ! Just as it used to be ! An odd 
contraption made, I’ve heard, by an old slave. 
Now, I’m going up and must take the lantern. 
Will you come, too, and be in at the finish ? ” 


210 


THE DOINGS OP NANCY 


Indeed, I will ! And I don’t see how 
I could ever have been afraid of just a noise, 
and I never was until to-night. I wish 
Jimmy was here, though I guess he’d have 
had a fit, nearly. He’s the ’fraidest boy 
there is. Yes, I’m at the top, and you can 
creep ahead. I’ll follow. It’s from the 
farthest end, isn’t it ? And getting quiet 
now, as if it were ashamed of itself for fool- 
ing people all these years ! ” 

It was exactly as the colonel had explained. 
When they had crept from beam to beam, 
along the whole of the roof space above the 
three rooms, they found a spot where the 
shrill whistlings and rattlings were again 
almost deafening ; and laughing, well satis- 
fied, they made their way back to the floor 
below. 

Oh ! we’re cobwebby and dirty — My ! 
That nice white suit of yours — it looks just 
like a street-cleaner’s — ” 

It is a street-cleaner’s, therefore can be 
washed. To-morrow I’ll have that roof fixed 


THE GHOST IS LAID 


211 


— I mean, to-morrow, you may tell your mis- 
tress that you’ve found the lair of her ghost 
and will ‘ lay ’ him, if she’ll pay the carpenter. 
Suggest to her that she employ my old friend, 
Willy Bates. And now good night. Or good 
morning. Is it at six you rise? Then I’ll 
call you.” 

Nancy’s first thought on awaking was : 

If Jimmy Lincoln would come now ! ” 

She was to have her wish, though it was 
not to make her glad. When she ran over 
the lawn to the big house, she saw that all 
the household were out of doors, examin- 
ing the wreck of the hurricane, and with a 
gay ^^good morning,” hurried to join them. 
Then when she spoke of the storm, she found 
them strangely inattentive. On all three 
faces there was the same expression of amaze- 
ment, and on the old servants’ this surprise 
was tinged with fear. Scarcely noticing the 
child’s salutation. Miss Halpine asked, sternly : 

Nancy, do you know anything about 
this?” 


212 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


The girl glanced downward, whither the 
lady pointed, and saw that where, yesterday, 
had been a rough, uneven bit of garden 
ground, were now a series of well-shaped, 
thoroughly worked ” beds. The rain which 
had come with the wind had been but slight, 
and the surfaces of these beds were merely 
moist, not beaten. 

Why, Miss Halpine ! Who did them ? 
After dark, too, it must have been.” 

That is what I am asking you. Solomon 
looked out of his window, just before the rain 
began, and saw something — he calls it a 
ghost — working here. He was frightened 
too badly to call out, and he watched whoever 
or whatever it was till the storm came on, and 
the — it vanished. He declares it did not 
walk, but melted away, though that’s the 
sheerest nonsense. These garden beds have 
been spaded and raked by mortal hands. 
Yours are quite too small ; but — Nancy ^ who 
are you hiding in the ‘ Haunted Cabin ’ ” 
The directness of the question almost forced 


THE GHOST IS LAID 


213 


betrayal ; but the child remembered her prom- 
ise in time, and saved her honor. Yet her 
face was most unhappy, for a moment, as she 
looked up into Miss Lucretia’s face, and 
answered : 

I cannot tell you, please. Miss Halpine.” 

Is it Jimmy ? ” 

Jimmy ! ” Nancy’s utter contempt of 
tone was reply sufficient to that question. 
Indeed, above the little girl’s head, looking 
roadward, the lady could see that same James 
coming toward the place. 

Do you know who did this work ? ” 

I don’t know — really know — but I guess. 
Aren’t you glad it is done, no matter how, 
Miss Halpine?” 

That’s neither here nor there. The fact is 
that you, whom I trusted, and indulged in a 
fanciful housekeeping, even now that the time 
of danger is past, are deceiving me, doing 
something underhand. You, my little Nancy. 
Ah ! you cannot guess what a disappointment 
this is. I had grown to love you, and looked 


214 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


forward to such a happy season, to so many 
happy seasons — There, child. I’m sorry. 
But, of course, if you will not tell me whom 
you are secreting in my property, knowing, 
as you do, that for a reason sufficient to my- 
self I can never enter the cabin again ; and 
knowing that their fear of disease keeps these 
others out of it — Oh ! Nancy ! ” 

It seemed to the astonished little girl as if 
the world were being turned upside down. 
There were tears, actual tears, in her beloved 
lady’s eyes, while Solomon and Jane glared 
upon her as if they would annihilate her for 
the pain she was giving Miss Lucretia. Then 
she rallied her own composure, and said, 
very gently : 

Please don’t be angry with me. Miss 
Halpine. I’ll try to tell you this very day. 
The next time I go there, at my ^ nooning.’ I 
promised I wouldn’t, and I can’t lie, I can’t. 
I should never feel clean afterward. But I’ll 
get permission — I will, I will. And — what 
am I to do to-day ? ” 


THE GHOST IS LAID 


215 


Nothing. I have no further use for a 
girl who defies my authority and hides — 
I suppose some tramp, prefers her word 
given a tramp to her allegiance toward me. 
Good-by, Nancy. Jimmy is coming up the 
driveway, and he can help you carry your 
things home. Solomon will pay you what 
you have earned to the end of the month.” 

The lady turned away, with a hard look in 
her eyes that Nancy had never seen there 
before. So must her old father, the Squire, 
have looked, when, as she had lately heard, 
he banished his only son from his roof for- 
ever. But she sprang after the slender figure 
in the soft gray gown, which now carried 
itself so haughtily, and caught the trailing 
garment, crying : 

Oh, he isn’t a tramp ! He isn’t ! He’s 
the best, the splendidest man I ever saw, 
except my father. He’s rich — rich as a 
king, I guess. And first he came to the 
hotel in Old Town, and every day he goes 
all about in a carriage or on a horse. He 


216 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


pays money for that, and ^ tramps ’ have no 
money. He’s — I guess it was he who dug 
the garden beds, because he heard me say 
Solomon was lame and couldn’t. A ^ tramp ’ 
wouldn’t do that. A ^ tramp ’ wouldn’t be so 
kind. You — Please — Eh? What? What 
is that you’re saying, Jimmy Lincoln? My 
father sick ? My father ? My own father — 
sick — they’ve sent for me — Then it is 
good-by. Miss Hal pine, and I — I hope you’ll 
find out some day I didn’t mean to do wrong, 
and — I will — Oh, dear ! What ails me 
that I can’t think?” 

Wild with anxiety concerning the father 
she so dearly loved, and who must be ill, 
indeed, to summon her from her contract,” 
she fairly flew down the driveway toward the 
gate. But midway its length, she glanced 
toward the little, vine-clad cabin which had 
become also dear to her, and paused, remem- 
bering : 

^^He said he was going a-fishing with 
^ Willy,’ my father. He’ll be so sorry to know 


THE GHOST IS LAID 


217 


he can’t go, and I must tell him. Besides, I 
want to say good-by to him, and to beg him 
to tell Miss ’Cretia what I could not.” 

As she turned aside toward the old ‘‘ quar- 
ters,” a tall, soldierly man came boldly to its 
door to meet her. He had been, at first an 
amused and afterward a puzzled, spectator 
of the scene in the distant garden ; and had 
feasted his eyes upon the graceful gentle- 
woman who was the centre of the group, 
just as he had been feasting them at every 
opportunity of these past days. He had seen 
Nancy’s bewilderment upon Jimmy’s arrival, 
and her keen distress which followed it. He 
did not look at all like the ^Hramp” Miss 
Halpine had suspected, nor like a man who 
liked hiding from anybody, save to spare 
that other pain. Neither was he a man to 
desert a friend, and he quickly stepped down 
to meet the child, who flung herself upon him 
in a frenzy of grief. 

My dear, my little comrade, what can 
have happened ? ” 


218 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


You must come — my father — she 
doesn’t believe and I promised — I’ve got to 
go — ^ sick to death/ Jimmy said, and I’m 
hurrying home. Oh, go and tell her, please ! 
I love her, she mustn’t blame me so. And I 
love you, too, but good-by, good-by ! ” 

She was off again, rushing recklessly for- 
ward, and at the very gate colliding with 
Jimmy, who had made a less rapid, but more 
direct passage to it. The shock of their 
impact sent them both to the ground, from 
which James, the valiant, was first to rise, 
and to angrily demand : 

Where’s your manners at, Nancy Bates, 
runnin’ into a feller like that ? ” 

Oh ! I didn’t mean to. Are you going 
home ? ” 

^^Well, I guess I ain’t a-goin’ to stay on 
this hateful old place, I ain’t. No, sir. Wisht 
I’d never seen it. Wisht I was my own boss, 
’stead of bein’ sent by any old body a-doin’ 
errands for punishin’. If I ain’t been pun- 
ished just for getting the old woman’s old 



“ AT THE VERY GATE COLLIDING WITH JIMMY 




THE GHOST IS LAID 


219 


horse shod, I’d like to know. To hear my ma 
talk, you’d think I’d disgraced the whole con- 
nection, and my pa won’t let me touch a single 
one of all our stable-full. Say, how long you 
goin’ to stand it ? ” 

They had again walked rapidly along the 
homeward road, but Nancy turned her sur- 
prised face toward her mate, sobbing out : 

Why — you know. It’s all over, course. 
My father — Oh, Jimmy, did you see him ? 
What is it ? The measles ? Jane says old 
folks always die when they get them, and 
don’t tell me he has. Don’t ! ” 

Jimmy halted, planted his copper-toes 
firmly in the mud, thrust his hands into his 
pockets — for he never could ^Hhink” with- 
out doing so — and uttered a prolonged, 
amazed : W-h-e-w ! ” 

Then recovering somewhat, he asked : 

Who’s got the measles ? What you cryin’ 
for, anyway? I never knew you was a 
crier, never. Say, Nancy, you’ve lost most 
your wits a-stayin’ with them three old ones 


220 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


and not never havin’ no fun no more. Say, 
tell me, whisper it if you dare — did it ever 
show itself again ? Say, did it ? ” 

The tortured little girl decided that if she 
were witless he was doubly so, and as a means 
of restoring his wandering faculties, put her 
hands upon his shoulders and shook him 
soundly, commanding him to : 

Tell me the truth this instant, Jimmy 
Lincoln. The very exact message that my 
father sent me.” 

Shucks ! Is that all ? Well, there’s nothin’ 
to cry about in that, as I see, ’less you’ve got 
to likin’ these rich folks better’n you do your 
own family, and — ” 

He was interrupted by another vigorous 
shake, which produced the long-delayed mes- 
sage, thus : 

^ Tell my little daughter that I’m sick to 
death ” for a sight of her bonny face, and that 
she is free to come home now, any time. 
Tell her that Step-aunt-mother has made one 
of her favorite cakes for supper, that the 


THE GHOST IS LAID 


221 


house has been fumigated, and that the doc- 
tor says Nancy is perfectly safe in coming, so 
that the whole family is just waiting for her 
day’s work to be over, and that even Frank 
will be on hand at the Bates’ cottage to wel- 
come her. Then come back and let us know 
if she’ll be here.’ Huh ! That’s all. Every 
blessed single word, true’s I live. Hey ? 
What?” 

For with a rapturous cry, — Frank would 
have called it squeal,” — Nancy again seized 
his shoulders and shook him, bent forward 
and kissed him, then gave him a shove to- 
ward home, while she herself returned at 
breakneck speed along the way she had come. 

Jimmy wheeled about and looked after her, 
but caught only a glimpse of her gingham 
skirt and red head vanishing within the stone 
gateway. Then he took out a very soiled 
calico handkerchief and wiped his cheek. 

Kissed me ! The second time ! That 
girl did. Well, I’ve done now. If she thinks 
I’m goin’ to stand that — Shucks ! ” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE FINAL DELIGHTFUL DOINGS 

Miss Halpine had watched Nancy’s flight, 
and detour to the cabin, with sorrowful inter- 
est ; but when her gaze fell upon the soldier 
who came to its door and greeted the child, 
her strength suddenly forsook her so that she 
sank down upon the garden bench, unable 
longer to stand. 

Jane and Solomon, also, were keen specta- 
tors of the scene, and as the little girl tore 
herself away from the stranger’s grasp and 
fled down the avenue, uttered a mutual groan 
and turned their frightened glances upon her 
whom this most concerned. 

The man came straight to them, but his 
dark eyes regarded only their mistress, though 
under all the changes which forty years had 
222 


THE FINAL DELIGHTFUL DOINGS 223 


wrought, they recognized him at once. How 
would their beloved lady take it ? The an- 
swer came swiftly, for reading in the soldier’s 
look the fact that, after all this weary wait- 
ing, he was still the same as when they parted, 
she sprang up and into the arms which opened 
to receive her, crying : 

Maxwell ! Maxwell, my brother ! At 
last, at last ! ” 

Lucre tia ! my sister ! ” 

Then they loosed themselves and held one 
another at arm’s length, each searching in 
each for the changes time had wrought, and 
behold ! the changes were outward merely. 
A fair and high-bred couple, still beautiful 
with the beauty that comes of lives well 
spent, and glowing now with the joy of re- 
union. There was a brief, firm hand-clasp for 
each of the astonished, delighted servitors, 
and then the colonel drew his sister down 
upon the bench again, while she eagerly 
demanded : 

Well ? Talk, explain — everything, every- 


224 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


thing. Why did you never come before ? 
Why never write ? ” 

Would you have welcomed me, Lucretia? 
I knew how proud you were, and how you 
shared — or I thought you shared — my 
father’s fury against me. I was a silly boy, 
and had the old Halpine temper. I thought : 
^ If she cares, she will summon me,’ and I 
expected that you would when — he died. 
I — ” 

But I never, never shared his anger, as 
you thought. And when he died I did not 
know on what part of this earth you were. 
I knew you were in the army ; then I heard, 
or read, that you had gone abroad. Then, 
since you did not come or send a single word 
of sorrow or of sympathy, I made myself for- 
get you. I would never read the army news, 
and no one was allowed, to mention your 
name. I felt — I felt that I was being true 
to father, so ; yet now I know that if he were 
still alive he would remember nothing but 
that he loved you. Oh, my brother ! ” 


THE FINAL DELIGHTFUL DOINGS 225 


When her emotion somewhat subsided, he 
talked with her at length of the wretched 
quarrel which had kept these two last mem- 
bers of one household strangers for a lifetime. 
And finished his story, saying : 

I had decided to go abroad again, to end 
my days in sunny Italy. But the whim seized 
me to come back and take a last look at the 
old place before the chance was past forever. 
And, to think how slight a matter may alter 
the best laid plans ! It’s all along of your 
bright-faced, red-headed little gardener-girl 
that I did not do so. I sought shelter in the 
deserted cabin, meaning to spend but the night 
there, and after all was quiet up here to 
wander over the grounds, have a glimpse 
of, you, if I could, and depart, myself unseen. 
Nancy’s doings upset all that.” 

Thank God ! ” cried Miss Lucretia, caress- 
ing the hand she held. 

^^Amen, and amen. She mistook me for 
the spook — by the way, that’s banished, or 
will be — and I mistook her for somebody 


226 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


belonging here. Then we grew confidential, 
without my revealing my name, and I found 
how she was working for a trilling sum in 
order to help her brother. She was eloquent 
on the subject of that brother. She reminded 
me of a little sister of my own, who, in the 
days before her ^ idol ’ fell under a ban, con- 
sidered him, as Nancy considers Frank, ^ the 
splendidest boy in Norwich.’ Then I pon- 
dered : ^ Is this an ordinary sister’s love ? Do 
all sisters love their brothers so? Would this 
affection outlive a silence of years?’ So I 
asked her opinion. Children are radicals, 
always. A thing is out-and-out right or 
wrong. We entered into a compact. I would 
stay on in the old cabin, and she would keep 
my secret. If it seemed probable that I would 
be forgiven and welcomed, I would let her 
tell you I was here. If not — she was not to 
betray me.” 

She didn’t. Oh, the poor, dear, loyal 
little thing ! She longed to tell me when I 
blamed her, but said she couldn’t lie, for she’d 



CRETIA 





THE FINAL DELIGHTFUL DOINGS 227 


never be clean again, if she did. I loved the 
child, Maxwell, and now she’s gone home to a 
sick father, feeling herself in disgrace with me. 
We must go and find her, at once, brother, and 
set that matter straight. We must see that 
her father — ” cried Miss Lucretia, rising. 

Sit down again, dear. She is already com- 
ing back to us, and see ! A transformation ! 
Her little freckled face was so sad, a few 
minutes ago, but it’s certainly glad enough 
now.” 

She reached them almost before he finished 
speaking, and the delight of her good home 
news was doubled by the sight of this gray- 
haired brother and sister, looking so happy 
and so young in their reunion. 

Oh ! I see, I see ! It’s all right, isn’t it ? 
And do you forgive me now, you sweet Miss 
’Cretia, for keeping him in hiding till it was 
just the very rightest time there could be? 
Isn’t he the finest sort of a ^ tramp ’ ever was ? 
And Jimmy told a story. I don’t mean that, 
but he only said ^ sick to death,’ and I was to 


228 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


come home, when it was only my father’s 
way of saying he couldn’t wait to see me, 
hardly. It’s all right there, too. Everybody’s 
well again, and the house has been sulphured 
out or something, like Jane did to my clothes 
when they came from Mrs. Wakeman’s; and 
after my day’s work is done I can go, and I 
needn’t stay all night again.” 

Heigho, Little Comrade, and Fellow 
Spook Hunter ! Why cast so wistful a glance 
toward our old barracks ? Sit right down 
here between us, and hear me talk. You’ve 
been a very patient listener, in the past days, 
to an old soldier’s reminiscences, and as a 
reward he’ll treat you to some prophecies. 
You listen, also, sister, and set me right if 
I go wrong. We cannot by any possibility 
spare our young gardener, and it seems that 
neither can he who was Willy Bates spare 
her ; so, since Solomon Grundy Smith is now 
quite limbered by surprise, he will proceed to 
harness that sedate nag I’ve seen here, and 
we three will drive to town. We’ll overtake 


THE FINAL DELIGHTFUL DOINGS 229 


that unfortunate Jimmy on the road, and give 
him a lift. We’ll beg of his father to ‘ let him 
off this time,’ and we’ll get him to drive a fine 
white horse, I’ve been using on my rides about, 
to the hospital. We’ll fetch Frank home if he 
hasn’t already been fetched, and we’ll let the 
Polypodium-Lyodium-Lycopogdiums take care 
of their own green selves, for one livelong day ! 
Work ? I guess we won’t. Ah, Nancy ! I 
know your sufferings. I’ve been through that 
same mill, and been ground fine upon the 
wheels of Saponaria-Scutellaria-Specullaria- 
Stelarias, till I’ve wished my learned sister had 
never heard of a botany. Eh, Lucre tia ? ” 
You’re a bad, teasing boy, still. Maxwell 
Halpine, despite your glittering straps and 
bars.” 

^‘Hope I always shall be one, my dear. 
But I was prophesying, wasn’t I ? I will buy 
that white horse of the ^ liberty ’ stableman, 
name it the Spook, and present it to Miss 
Nancy Bates, her heirs and assigns forever, 
as a memorial gift of our happy secret in the 


230 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


^ Haunted Cabin.’ I will get Wilson Bates, 
after he and I have been a-fishing, to put a 
new roof on that same cabin, and so give the 
unhappy northwest wind a rest. As a sensi- 
ble thing to do with some of the money which 
has come to me, I will build a big library for 
my old town, and so realize one, at least, of 
my boyhood’s dreams. I will get that master 
carpenter, this child’s father, to do the real 
building for me ; and the unfortunate Frank 
to bring himself and his plaster cast out here 
to the Spookery, and go to housekeeping on 
his own account. It will be a fine quiet 
place for him to do all the ^ figuring ’ his 
father will need ; and to make his first essay 
as an architect in planning the library and 
some new beautiful greenhouses.” 

Oh, Maxwell ! Can you ? Will you ? 
Then you’ll realize one of my own lifelong 
dreams ! ” cried Miss Lucretia, clapping her 
hands. 

I surely will, my dear. But you should 
never interrupt a prophet. I’ve always longed 


THE FINAL DELIGHTFUL DOINGS 231 


to see a fine cottage on yonder little hill, that 
looks down on Cedarcroft and belongs to it ; 
and now I see it building, in truth. It is to 
be the home of the Alphabetical Bateses, and 
of Solomon, the money-eater. There is to be 
another fair garden up there, all around that 
cottage, and there is to be the most friendly 
rivalry between that new young garden and 
this venerable stately one. I see that, since 
now this ^ splendidest ’ Frank can earn his 
own brace, his sister will waste her substance 
on Rosacese-Yiolaceae-Ericacses or other fool- 
ishness ; and I see — Solomon Grundy, faith- 
ful old Solomon Grundy, staring the prophet 
out of countenance ! Well, Solomon ? ’’ 

If you please. Master Maxwell — Land, 
don’t that come easy and sound nateral ? — If 
you please, there’s a man calls himself a gar- 
dener, a real one, and not no make-believe boy- 
girl, that wants to have a word with — with 
— well, whoever it is that’s bossing this place, 
now.” 

They all stood up, smiling and gay, like a 


232 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


trio of happy children, of which Nancy was by 
no means the youngest in spirit, and the 
colonel answered, laughing : 

Well, Solomon, I reckon that’s you. Isn’t 
it ? It’s been a lifelong occupation of yours, 
and it’s a bad business changing so late in the 
day. Hire whom you please, boss whom you 
please, but fetch Cedarcroft back to its old 
estate, when you and I were young, my 
Grundy, and send the bills to me. There ! 
Your dream fulfilled, too ? Ah ! how good it 
is ! How good it is ! But, while you ^ bar- 
gain’ with your man, just be hitching up, 
please. And, Jane, do you get up a good fire. 
I want one of your old — or young — chicken 
pies for my supper. I’ll send the market- 
man out from town. I’m not to blame for 
your having to cook it. It’s all the doings of 
Nancy, who’s kept me living on canned stuff 
down there in the cabin, till I’m as hungry — 
as hungry as I used to be! 

^^Now, you dear big and little pair of 
sisters, how do you like my prophecies?” 


THE FINAL DELIGHTFUL DOINGS 233 


Oh ! they’re splendid, splendid ! And, 
the best of it is, they’ll all come true, because 
you’re a soldier and an officer, and such a one 
never lies. I know. My father told me. 
Only, please, you mustn’t — about the Spook 
horse, you know. It’s too much for just — 
me — I — ” 

^^See here. Little Comrade. The men in 
the ranks never contradict their commander- 
in-chief. Insubordination has to be put down 
at once. Doesn’t it, Lucretia ? ” 

Yes, yes ; and it’s almost too good to be 
true,” said that happy creature, laying her 
cheek against her brother’s shoulder. 

And he, lest they should all grow senti- 
mental, suddenly pinched Nancy’s ear, though 
tenderly, and ordered : 

Tip us a ‘ Limerick,’ Little Comrade, tip 
us a ^ Limerick,’ suitable to the occasion.” 

So, not daring to disobey her officer, she 
pondered a bit, then sang out : 

There was a fine soldier who would 
Make every one glad if he could. 


234 


THE DOINGS OF NANCY 


The pictures he drew 
Were bound to come true, 

Because he so willed that they should/^ 

Miss Lucretia laughed, but the colonel 
cried : 

Lame — lame ! That last line needs a 
crutch. Hear me. ITl try : 

<< Oh ! strange are the doings of Nancy, 

A maiden of most lively fancy. 

By quaint witching arts 
She conquers all hearts. 

That dear little red-head named Nancy ! ’’ 


THE END. 









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